Fantastic!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I didn't know what to expect from this movie. I wanted something light, something emotional and dramatic, but not too sad. I got everything I wanted and more, including the sadness which I didn't want. But it was worth it. Benning's character came across as very harsh early on, but we later saw her morphed into a more likable character, which I felt transformed easily, because she was now in a more happier place in her life. She was made to give up her daughter when she was 14 and pregnant, and I believe that made her bitter initially in life. Naomi Watts' character was an adopted child who also seemed bitter, having never known her parents, and was on her own from 17. Kerry Washington was a married woman who couldn't have children, and therefore looking to adopt. How all these characters came together was worth the watch. It was beautifully done. Kerry was sublime in her acting skills, and you felt her anxiety, her pain and every emotion she portrayed. Benning as usual was wonderful, and Naomi was manipulative and often unlikable, which I believe she was meant to portray and therefore did it well. The role of the Sister in the agency was well played by Cherry Jones, and all the supporting actors, including Samuel Jackson and Jimmy Smits, brought a realness to each part. I don't want to give anything away, but the sadness in one of the scenes with Naomi really came as a surprise, as I was not expecting that. I felt like there was not enough closure, but then again the producer brought it all full circle to make you embrace the ending, after all, not everything in life ends with roses and a box of chocolates. Sometimes it ends with a lot of Kleenex. I think this is a movie worth watching, and embracing.

Yes the actors are great and I like the emotions in their faces. They are superb in their acting and blah blah blahThe true question is not if the actors are good, the question is why in the name of Earth, were all these good actors/actresses in this movie with such a horrendous theme.Yes, for those who haven's seen the movie…please don't, the theme of the movie is bad, really – really bad.The movie is a ride into the idea that, 'Do not Adopt and do not give for adoption children, if you do, the child and you, will be destroyed forever and ever…oh and adoption is not natural so…DON'T DO IT! Just don't!'Cripes sake! Keep away from this kind of movies…THEY are the devil!

I have no particular criticism about the technical or artistic qualities of this movie or seeing it as an entertainment light enough to pass away a couple of hours just watching all these problems with having babies, adopting babies, caring for babies, bathing babies, dying to have babies... I just wonder... are women lives SO limited that the only way to fulfill their humdrum little lives is ONLY by having babies??? I'm sorry folks, I find that aim in life so limiting that I cannot believe an intelligent woman cannot find any other way to happiness and fulfillment in her life. I just can't. I refuse to believe it. For men is so easy, man takes pleasure and disappears if he so decides, but women..., women are stuck for ever with the consequences! What about ART, what about a fulfilling career, what about LIVING??? A woman that has a child is burdened with "it" for life! As the character in the movie that got the adopted baby girl (finally, because one more minute of her struggles and I would have stopped the projection!!!) realizes, when the child howls away for HOURS, that this is no rosy picture and heavenly perfumes... (she would gladly return the baby to whomever gave it to her in the first place). Well, all that said, I swear never again to watch movies with howling babies in it.

While the acting is of the highest quality, this is a story about how people use and abuse each other. In some way most of the characters use one or more others. Naomi Watts uses men for sex and power. Annette Bening uses Jimmy Smits as a stooge for her failure to overcome her own obsession with the daughter she gave up for adoption. Her mother uses Annette as a personal slave for whom she has nothing but disdain. Rather than list all the other user characters, let me congratulate the writer for one role that is not a user. Jimmy Smits is a quiet, supportive man who shows unasked for kindness, even when he's abused by Annette Bening. This movie was a disturbing portrayal of the characters' self obsession and added little to our knowledge of the real issues surrounding adoption. The most real moment for me was when Naomi Watts' character screamed at her gynecologist for assuming she'd want an abortion. Gynecologists and geneticists do this all the time much to their shame. This is a movie you will enjoy only for the quality of the character portrayals and definitely not for the excruciating way they are written.