Last night CavWife and I went to the screening of a new movie called October Baby. It was made by some old friends of hers, the Erwin brothers (not to be confused with the Coen brothers). Andy made our wedding video for us. They have done contract work for ESPN and have made a number of Dove Award winning music videos. This is their first full length movie.
This is a pretty good movie. The subject matter is pretty serious, but they have enough comic relief to not overwhelm you. When the movie gets the most serious, the comic relief is nowhere to be found so you aren’t too distracted. At times it moves a little slow. But what do you want for the first time out?
The movie begins something like Sweet Home Alabama, 2 childhood friends running toward the water hand in hand. The boy and girl are close friends. It fast forwards to their college years. Someone has come between them creating a discomfort. This is her big night as the lead actress in a play. After she collapses we learn that life has not been easy for her. She’s had a number of physical ailments, and some emotional ones too.
Hannah discovers that she was adopted. Her world is rocked. And it continues to get rocked as she willfully sets off to discover her birth mother. The love story is secondary to her trying to come to grips with all she never knew. But she is not the only one- others have to come to grips with what they knew but never shared. She discovers she is the survivor of an abortion attempt (that’s the last reveal of importance). So the movie deals with very sensitive subject matter. It does so sensitively, and without some of the pollyanna everything turns out perfectly problem that plagues so many Christian movies. But she is struggling with anger at nearly everyone. She and other characters have been stuck because of the secret. It is time to move on.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4
The movie avoids a judgmental perspective. Instead it speaks most clearly of forgiveness. One of the pivotal scenes takes place in a cathedral in a discussion with a priest. This is odd because Hannah is Baptist (though you see little of the public aspects of faith in the characters). I wondered why she didn’t seek out her pastor. But perhaps that just seemed too preachy when they wrote it (the last thing it needed was one of those church service sermons that you often find). It remains accessible to non-religious people because it is not overtly religious. Oh, the gospel is there (or enough of it) to make the point.
This movie should connect with adoptive parents, adopted kids, women who’ve had abortions and others. It opens the door to some important matters. But not in a heavy-handed way.
As adoptive parents, we really don’t have to worry about our kids not realizing they are adopted. Our son is Asian and the kids we are in the process of adopting are African. They know we are not their birth parents. But like Hannah, they will probably struggle with rejection. We have already had conversations with our son to help him understand how he ended up half a world away.
God’s providence is intriguing. The other day CavGirl mentioned to me that she was sad I didn’t have a sister. I shared with her that my mother had miscarried a little girl. But if she had been born, I most likely would not have been born since I was conceived a few months after the miscarriage. There are all sorts of issues similar to those touched on in this movie. The tone is gracious, not condemning in recognizing that we all err. The movie seeks not to condemn but to offer forgiveness.
If you decide to go on March 23rd, bring tissues.
Cavman Considers 
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