40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
COMING HOME, June 20, 2002
Adopted by a middle aged Jewish couple and doted on by her mother young Rebecca Hoffman leads a conventional life. Then her mother dies and her father remarries. In his new marriage there is no room for Rebecca. She is one to be tolerated. She no longer has a home. Years later Rebecca searches for her birth parents and comes to the realization that she is not white nor Jewish. Rebecca is Navajo.
Lost Child is a film based on the the autobiography, Looking For Lost Bird, by Yvette Melanson. In this picture we see the life of a child stolen from her birth parents and made to assume a new identity. Her adoptive father's reluctance to have her, her feeling of isolation and her quest to find her identity is both moving and tragic as we see a young woman so far from her home.
Mercedes Ruehl plays a sensitive and savy Rebecca who tries so hard to be accepted by her adoptive father. Her discovery of her Navajo roots gives her comfort and a sense of completion. Yet, she too and her family undergo some heartaches and challenges as she returns home. This movie shows the hope of a mother seeking a reunion of her children. We witness the reintergration of a woman back to her heritage. We also see the ugly side of cultural prejudice as her daughters attempt to fit in with their new family and culture.
This is an enjoyable film that is a sanitized version of the book. Everyone in the picture is so good, so noble to the point of being unbelievable. Of course everything works itself out and the family lives happily ever after. If only life could be that simple. Inspite of that Lost Child is well worth your seeing as you get a glimpse into another culture.
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18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Heart Warming, January 4, 2003
This is a very heart warming movie about coming home. It reinforces the strong family bonds even through years of separation. It explores the need to stand up against unhealthy traditions in a changing world, as well as, traditions which can help define who we are in an ever changing world.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Acting, Bad Casting, March 9, 2008
This review is from: The Lost Child (DVD)
Such conflict within my soul! Oh the torment! On one hand, the acting in this TV movie is just excellent. Mercedes Ruehl, the lead, is wonderful as Rebecca, as is her husband (Jamey Sheridan), the ever good-lookin Ned Romero as her dad, and Julia McIlvaine as her eldest daughter. So that makes it hard for me to say that the casting ruined the movie.
I simply could *not* get past the fact that Ruehl is supposed to be a full-blood Dine. I was so confused when I found out that neither her mom nor dad was white--I assumed the character was half-white. Maybe possibly sorta kinda (given the unpredictability of genetics) Ruehl could pass as half-Dine', but even that's pushing it. She isn't Native at all, although she could certainly `pass' as a quarter. But not Navajo! (For that matter, a bunch of the Indian actors don't look Navajo at all, but I can get past that because it's so normal (Irene Bedard has played a Navajo role a zillion times, but even she and the other sisters, including the awesome Tamara Podemski, look nothing alike). Even worse, the girl who plays the young Rebecca looks so white that it's jarring to see her in a shot with her birth mother, all while knowing that her dad is supposed to be Ned Romero (who does look Navajo in his old age). I would also complain about casting Julia McIlvaine as her elder daughter, who clearly isn't half Dine' but rather could've stepped right off the Nina, the Pinta, or the Santa Maria (the younger daughter could presumably have just gotten 80% recessive genes, but she wasn't very convincing either). But this is based on a true story, and indeed, I do know mixed-race families where someone impossibly comes out with blondish hair (like my cousin)...and then there are all those 1/128 blonde Cherokees, of course. But STILL! So hard to get past. And, as great as Mercedes Ruehl was, there are plenty of excellent Native actresses her age who could've been casted instead. Why not Sheila Tousey? She could have totally pulled off this character (and is light-skinned enough to be convincingly racially ambiguous in her prior life). Enough complaining, but I hate that I can't put this on my Good Indian Movies list (see my Listmania) because of this glaring problem. Tragic! Indeed!
On the other hand, because this is based on a true story, there's a great deal of non-Hollywood realism here that I really appreciated. Aside from the totally cheesy Hallmark soundtrack and Wise Indian Elder lines they made Tantoo Cardinal say, the relationships and family dynamics played out with such genuineness, and that's what really makes you care about the story. The cultural dissonance played out really effectively, too, and had enough tension to make you feel it and invest in the characters more. (Although--I felt that some of that dissonance was presented in too much of a one-sided way and could make white viewers see Navajo culture in a negative light.) I'm torn (oh woe!) on the last positive, too...I thought they presented a really broad sense of life on that particular rez from the average school to the community center, but there were also times when I also felt they were kinda making things seem more `exotic' than they really are. I mean, where were the schoolkids listening to rap? Where was the bingo? But as a whole, I thought the story was engaging and well told. I'd be interested in checking out the book.
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