Adoption advocates up in arms over Orphan movie
Posted by Sanford Benardo on July 21st, 2009 in Adoption, Popular Culture | 1 Comment »
In this movie, a husband and wife lose a baby and adopt a nine-year-old girl who is “not nearly as innocent as she seems.”
The social work and adoption advocacy community have reacted to the trailer (the movie does not open until Friday, July 24) by calling for boycotts of Warner Bros. There is little doubt that this film does not cast adoption in a positive light, though I don’t believe it is as reprehensible as they are making it out to be. It’s a simple summertime horror film, not some incisive documentary about the dangers of adopting an older child. In fact, the protagonist herself is the one who issues the taunt on the trailer (see below).
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I spent part of a lovely Sunday watching this. Didn’t hate it, but everything about the adoption process was fictionalized [other than simply using the phrase “home study”]. Hardly a cautionary tale about the dangers of adopting an older child – to me it leaves two take away messages:
1) make certain the adoption agency or foster home you are working with has accurate records
2) check to see if the child you think you are adopting isn’t really an adult escapee from a mental institution with some form of dwarfism [I can’t believe I just wrote that!]