Movie Review "Deep in my Heart" - Cheryl Richmond

Reviewer :

Cheryl Richmond Adult adoptee

I watched "Deep In My Heart," last night. I am an adoptee who has searched for (and been reunited with) my birthmother and siblings.

For the most part I enjoyed the movie, but I think it way over-simplified the search process! My search took 12 years, and though the Internet was a big part in finally solving my adoption puzzle, there is far more to a search than this.

The adoptee (Barbara Ann) in the movie had the "benefit" of being in foster care long enough to remember who her caregiver was; she was lucky that her foster mom never moved after so many years. It is also highly unusual for a birthmother to deliver a baby to the foster home personally, so this was another advatage that the adoptee had, as well as knowing her birthname/last name. Also, the non-id info that Barbara Ann received was quite detailed, far more so that what most adoptees receive from an agency.

Aside from the lucky breaks Barbara Ann had in her search, I think the movie did a wonderful job expressing the pain adoption can cause, as well as the inefficiency and callousness of social services and the adoption industry. The audience was able to glimpse a rare view into the heart and soul of a bi-racial adoptee, her birth mom, foster mom, *and* adoptive mom.

This was a refreshing treatment from the usual adoption-themed fodder that Hollywood puts out there in TV/Movie land!

I do think more attention needed to be paid to the inequities of the adoption system in this country, as well as to the need for Open Records. Search and reunion are nice for that warm fuzzy feeling, but they are hardly the only aspect of adoption.

Otherwise it was a good story, (as reunion stories go) and I am glad that I watched it.

Cheryl Richmond
Arizona State Director, Bastard Nation
Adoptee, happily reunited with birthmother Dec. 1997
and siblings March 1998
Still ISO Birthfather S. Briggs

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