I haven't seen it, but thanks for the heads up.

Angela :-)

Wow! We were planning to go see this tomorrow, but now I will wait until it comes out on video so I can preview it first. It's certainly does not seem to be the cute movie it seemed in the previews. Thank you so much for the review, Theresa!

OMG! I'd not even heard of this, but it sounds scary.

I'm looking forward to hearing personal reviews.

Hello, I just saw this movie last night. I am not an adoptive parent, although I do have a lot of friends who are. I did enjoy the movie, but I have to say I kept thinking, how difficult it would be to watch this movie if my daughter was adopted. They show the scene of the young birth mother dropping off the infant Lewis at the orphanage two times. She does hug him first, but still. And then they show that Lewis went through 124 parent interviews and no one wanted him - mostly because he was a science geek. What kind of a message is that? His roommate also does not get adopted because he is a little weird. But at the end of the movie, they show that both of them find loving adoptive parents once they are 'good' or 'normal'. That part made me a little sick to my stomach. Personally, I would not take my adopted child (if I had one) unless you want a way to bring up abandonement issues in order to talk about them.

We took all of our kids to see it yesterday (I didn't realize it had such a strong adoption theme). 7 or our 10 kids are adopted.

I have to say that I was nervous when it started, but I thought it was WONDERFUL. The adoption message was handled SO well in my opinion.

Warning... I am giving plot stuff away, so don't read if you don't want to. :)

Lewis does wonder about his birth mother, dreams she is out there looking for him, is his perfect mother, etc. He knows he has seen her face as a baby, and thus starts inventing the "Memory maker" so he can remember what she looks like and try to find her.

At one point he has a conversation with the woman that runs the orphanage. Lewis is depressed and says something along the lines of "Even his mom didn't want him." The orphanage woman points out that maybe his mom did want him, but was unable to care for him, and placed him with them so he could have the care he needed and deserved (again, I am paraphrasing). Lewis said, "oh, I never thought of it like that".

Through 8 million twists and turns, he meets a wonderful family in the future, which turns out to be HIS family...the oby he hangs out with is his future son, the "mom" of the boys he comes to love is his future wife, and the boys grandparents are the parents that end up adopting Lewis. The message of the movie is "Keep Moving Forward", and Lewis realizes what an awesome and loving future he has.

He does get the opportunity to go back in time to the day he was left at the orphanage. He sees his birth mother (in a long hooded coat...) hug him (as a baby), kiss him, and then leave him carefully on the doorstep of the orphanage. When he has the opportunity to comfront her, meet her and see her, he chooses not to. But seeing her hug and kiss him brings closure to him in some way, and he his happy and peaceful with his decision.

Later on when he is asked why he didn't contact her in any way when he had the opportunity, he smiles and says something along the lines of "I already found my family."

The message was that his adoptive family WAS his real family, that his birth mother seemed to genuinely love and care for him but chose adoption for whatever reason, that our pasts are important but what really matters in life is to "Keep Moving Forward" to the future.

It is a great opportunity for adoption related discussion, and I am sure there will be critics, but I really did think it was handled well (from an adoptive parent point of things). There is no "happy reunion with the birth mother", so I wonder if birth mothers will be upset with how that ended...

Oh, and the director of the movie was adopted as a child, so I think that plays a lot into how it was handled.

I was going to write about this today too! :) (Oh, and once the adoption stuff started in the movie, I was most worried about my older kids too, but again... I really think the movie had a good message).

Hope that helps...

E

Ok, forgot some things... Gabby said that the boys only got adopted when they were "normal and good", but I disagree. Lewis did not change at all...he found a family to accept him as a "science geek", and they loved him even when he "failed" on an experiment, and cheered him on that we learn through our failures and end up better for them.

The other little boy (who as a grown up is the villian in the story) DOES get adopted once they go back in time and change something big in his life, BUT, the message with that character is that when you hold on to anger, resentment, revenge, etc. it ruins YOUR life, but when you let it go and "move to the future", you can overcome stuff.

remember...it's a cartoon...Disney movie...some of it is a stretch. :)

SORRY, one more thing...

I will put this on my blog too, but I found a review by an adoption agency that got to do a special screening and they are giving it good reviews for adoptive families and feel the issues were handled well.

Hope that helps!!!
E

Ummm wow I don`t know what to think.

I had no idea this was a movie about adoption. I am interested to hear more, the reviews seem mixed.

I saw the movie last night.
As an adopted kid myself (with admittedly many of the same traits as the title character) I was very impressed with the story. At first I was concerned because it seemed to be the typical Hollywood story of "Adopted Kid's life sucks until he meets his birth mother, then all is OK with the world." but the twist at the end where he said "I already know who my family is" almost made me tear up!

Not a day goes by where I don't thank my birth mother for the life I have. I've never met her, and have no intentions of ever doing so. She loved me enough to give me a family. That's the message of the film...

At the very least, if you have an adopted kid, warn him or her about the content -- and explain that kids don't "audition" for potential parents, etc. I won't say "don't go," but at least don't get blindsided like we did!

As an adoptive parent of three children, I want to say that my husband and I thought this was a wonderful movie. I agree with Erin's thought on the posivite message that Lewis didn't have to change to be adopted, that there was a family that wanted him just as he was. I think we're sometimes so ready to see how the world "doesn't get it" concerning adoption without seeing the good messages that are out there. I hope families will go see this movie together and then talk with their children about the adoption message and the children's feeling about their own adoption journey.

Also, I forgot that the part about the birth mother was just as sad as my child's feelings are. Lewis made the decision not to see her face, just as many adopted children decide not to search for their birthparents, for whatever reason. Perhaps Lewis would go back at some other time and meet her, find out what the whole story was, and reconcile that part of his life, too. We all know it isn't a decision with only one answer.