Thoughtful Thursday: Adoption Movies

Last night my best friend and I watched Raising Izzie.

I'm not the world's biggest movie fan. Although I've worked for movie theaters and will tolerate sitting down to watch a film here or there, they are not my "go-to" means of entertainment (video games and books are), so I don't watch many of them. 

Since November (National Adoption Month), I've been taking more notice of adoption issues, and for that reason, adoption movies are starting to pop up more. My best friend is watching a few of them and calling them to my attention (interspersed among television shows about fostering and adoption, such as The Fosters and Life Unexpected). While I'm not a fan of movies, I sit with her to watch some of these because of the perspective, and because I want the opportunity to correct errors in judgement by the movie's writers. 

Movies often want to paint adoption as beautiful, and a "miracle," which is encouraged by a society that wants to think it's doing the right thing by separating children from their original mothers.

Adoption movies tend to be more politically correct than encouraging to the people in the triad who need it the most: The adoptees.

Last night I watched Raaising Izzie with my best friend (who lives with me) while convalescing over a gallbladder attack. You can read my full review of Raising Izzie on Hubpages. As with too many adoption movies, it fell short of its mark. In order to have covered all of the important details of a transracial adoption, this movie would have needed to be covered in multiple parts, and should have focused more on the kids and the adoptive parents than on the back story.

It doesn't take long to understand that the mother is dead and that the older sister is raising the younger sister. In fact, this is covered in the movie's trailer (available on my Hubpages review of the movie).

This movie stands as a shining example of why I don't follow more adoption-related movies, and prefer to read novels on the topic. A book is far better able to express what a movie never can. I've added In Search of Eden and Orphan Train to my list of books that needs to be replaced following a flooding issue in our basement. They're on my wish list, if you want to consider helping a girl out!