Movie Review: ****^The Christmas Orange (2012)

This is a delightful movie from Covenant Communications.  Rose (Bailee Johnson) is an orphan, but she has found a very nice orphanage.  All of that changes with a flu plague.  Several of the girls pass away, as does the mother (Nancy Stafford) of the ophanage.  There is no one to replace her, and so all of the children are sent away.  Some are taken in by families, but the older chlidren such as Rose are sent to other orphanages.  Rose goes to Irongate which is run by a strict master, Mr. Crampton (Edward Hermann).  His brother, Joe, (Bruce Newbold) is a less invested member of the management, but is not as harsh.
Mr. Cramptom comes off as unfeeling, because his adult daughter has run away and has no contact with his father.  Rose's curiosity often gets her into trouble, and sent to the attic.  However all the children look forward to the orange's brought by Joe Christmas morning.  Rose is so excited she gets up in the night to smell and admire the oranges.  She is seen, and consequently is denied an orange.  How the other girls respond changes Christmas for them all.
This movie is touching.  Christian Vuissa is part of the production team.
Tony and I both enjoyed this film  It is based on the book by Linda Bethers.

Movie Review: The Cat's Meow

This is an interesting movie, with a very good cast of characters.  It tells a version of events aboard the boat of William Randolph Hearst (Edward Herrmann).  His wife Marion Davies (Kirsten Dunst) is thought to be involved in an affair with Charlie Chaplin (Eddie Izzard).  She is not, but Charlie is in love with her.  Thomas Ince (Cary Elwes) is hoping for a business deal with Heart to keep his career going, and for some reason flames the rumors of the illicit relationship between Chaplin and Davies.  This has terrible consequences for him.  The best part of movie is watching the jealousy of Hearst.  It finally blooms out of control.  A gossip reporter, Louella Parsons (Jennifer Tilly) is also on board, and observes the events.  Herrmann does an excellent job with the part.  Dunst is always good, and this case her bubbly personality comes through.
This movie is enjoyable, and it also is a good study of misperceptions and jealousy.  At times it is just a bit too busy; but since it is based on a party on a cruise, maybe the director intended it to be that way.

Movie Review: ***The Face on the Milk Carton: A Bad Adoption Story

Made for t.v. movie (1995) based on the book by Janie Johnson.  My kids use to have the book.  This movie is about how everything is done wrong in an adoption.  Two parents accept their daughter's story of her having a daughter and escaping a cult.  The grandparents take her in as their own, and move, fearing the cult might come after them.  They keep everything secret, and as far as the girl knows they are her parents.  Until she sees her face on a milk carton.  Her face as she was at age three, in a polka dot dress.  She slowly comes to realize that her initial hunches are true, something is not right about the story she has been told.  There are no pictures of her as a baby, there is no birth certificate, she finds Hannah's things in the attic.  She finally confronts her parents, and is told the story about the cult.

However she still cannot let the story go.  She secretly visits the family of the girl on the milk carton, and finds her birth family, not a cult.  She doesn't want to go back with them, but wants to relieve their worry, and writes them a letter, but decides not to mail it.  However she loses the letter, and it gets mailed and contact the other family.

Through court proceeding she returns to live with strangers, her birth family.  This is a struggle.  She is homesick.  She misses her boyfriend; she misses her parents.  The true story comes out, Hannah kidnapped her.  Her parents, as far as we know, did not know; but accepted their daughter's story.

It is a struggle.  Jen's siblings, some of them, are slow to accept her.  She slowly makes adjustments, and bit by bit, the two families begin to tolerate each other.

This is how adoption should never be.  Something based on lies is like a house of cards.  It is sure to tumble.