Product Details

• Actors: Jessica Lange, Halle Berry, David Strathairn, Cuba Gooding Jr., Daisy Eagan
• Directors: Stephen Gyllenhaal
• Writers: Naomi Foner, Seth Margolis
• Producers: Hawk Koch, Kimberly Brent, Naomi Foner, Sharon Owyang
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: April 1, 1997
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303574203
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,984 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Jessica Lange is a social worker who falls for an abandoned newborn and breaks all the rules by bringing him home. Halle Berry is the homeless druggie who dumped the baby. One of the film's best attributes is that it reveals everyone's perspective, though much of the story is told from Berry's point of view. Strung out on crack, Berry's character thinks nothing of hiding her baby in a cardboard box near a dumpster before going off for a fix. We watch Berry painfully pull herself up out of the gutter and make a life for herself. She embraces decency and sobriety and becomes the person she might have always been had her childhood been different. After Lange and her amiable spouse (David Strathairn) have formed strong family ties with this difficult child, they find themselves fighting to keep him when Berry decides she wants Isaiah back. Naomi Foner's clever script reveals a legal system that is as much a character in this painful story as the attorney (Samuel L. Jackson) who takes on the case pro bono. Though the film ultimately flounders under a hesitant ending, Lange is such a dynamo that this tragic story still comes recommended. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM, September 11, 2000

By 

Bonita L. Davis - See all my reviews

This review is from: Losing Isaiah [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Isaiah is known as one of the greatest prophets of Israel. Such is the case with this little African- American boy who was abandoned in the trash by his crack crazed mother. Three years later his mother, now clean, decides to reclaim her child. All of this sounds easy but little Isaiah has been adopted by a white social worker and her family and she is determined to keep him at all costs. The drama which unfolds before us is heart breaking as we attempt to decide what is in the best interest of this child.

Halle Berry, Jessica Lange And Samuel Jackson give outstanding performances in enacting the rivalry and possessive claims that both women have on this young toddler. Poverty versus Affluence, the feasibility of inter-racial adoptions, marital/parental stability (and responsibility) and the do gooder mentality are themes that run their course throughout the drama. All of these elements are dealt with in the drama and pulls the viewer from one woman's claim to the other. Who is right? Does pigmentation or culture matter? Above all, what has love got to do with it?

Social workers and judges in juvenile courts across the country are daily making these decisions of terminating parental rights and placing children in what they see as stable homes. Losing Isaiah is not a fantasy but a present reality. How to resolve these issues of custody is the dilemma for all involved. There are not any easy answers and unfortunately this film ends with an "easy" answer which isn't realistic.

The little Isaiah in the film, like his prophet namesake calls these adults to spiritual, moral and social accountability. His impact makes Margaret (the social worker) deal with what is going on in her marriage and family. Khaila, his mother, is forced to clean up her act and become a responsible parent who shows her compassion and love for all children. Both women lost Isaiah but both have come to grips with their own sense of self-esteem and awareness in their loss.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What's best for Isaiah?, September 20, 2005

By 

Charles E. Williams III (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Losing Isaiah (DVD)

Perhaps the biggest complaint I have with custody battles is that they are ultimately based around the selfishness of the adults involved, whether it be a battle between the child's mother and father, or between the biological parent(s) and the foster parent(s). "Losing Isaiah" is an example of a movie that uses this sad truth to tell a compelling story.

Normally, I'd be quick to write off someone like Halle Berry's character (a former crack addict who abandoned her baby in an alley) as someone unfit to raise this child. I'd also be uneasy about tearing Isaiah away from the only home he's ever known. Thankfully, this film does not end there.

After the courtroom decision is rendered, we see a much different Isaiah than the playful, cheerful child we first encountered. Did anyone bother to stop and ask him what he wanted? In an ideal world, someone would have. Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world, but at least we have people who (albeit a little slowly) realize this mistake in "Losing Isaiah." Were I to be given the assignment of filming a movie based around a custody battle, this is the kind of movie I would make.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Halle's best performance. She deserved an Oscar for this., September 9, 2004

By 

SHAWN JAMES "Amateur Film critic" (Bronx, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Losing Isaiah (DVD)

Losing Isaiah is Halle Berry's best movie. I wish she had gotten the Oscar for this film because She gives a breakthrough performance here as a black drug addict who abandons her baby and struggles to get him back from the white mother (Jessica Lange) who adopted him. Other Noteworthy performances here are Samuel L. Jackson and Cuba Gooding Jr. The film is great, not playing race as an issue, but showing us people as human beings letting the events play and showing us the outcome. I highly recommend this film.