October Baby, a new movie out in the theaters right now, is a must-see. It deals powerfully and substantively with the issues of abortion, honesty, truth, and forgiveness. The picture is impressive on the big screen, but if you can't make it to your local cinema anytime soon, it will be available on DVD and, no doubt eventually, on Netflix.
Here's the storyline of October Baby: As the movie opens, we see college freshman Hannah Lawson performing the female lead in the college's spring play. When she starts to give her initial lines, however, everything goes awry: she can't remember what to say and soon collapses on stage. We learn that Hannah has been suffering some severe psychological problems and is often depressed. We also learn that that Hannah has in the past suffered from epileptic seizures. She has had several hip surgeries and often uses an inhaler to get her through her frequent attacks of asthma. What caused her physical and psychological problems? Hannah is a survivor of a failed abortion. At the age of 24 weeks, her birth mother attempted to abort her, but Hannah defied the odds and survived. The trouble is, Hannah is adopted and doesn't know it. When she finds out, she is devastated by the news and is extremely angry to discover that her parents have been reading her private journal. Her adoptive mother softens her reserve and tells her daughter that she was born in Mobile, Alabama, whereupon Hannah resolves to embark on a quest to find her birth mother. But how will she get to Mobile? And will she have the courage to oppose her father, Dr. Jacob Lawson? Lawson is angry at Hannah for not buckling under to him but is also convicted of his and his wife's lack of honesty and forthrightness in dealing with their daughter.
Conveniently, it is spring break time, and Hannah decides to tag along with her long-term friend Jason, his girlfriend Alanna, and other buddies of theirs, all of whom are going to New Orleans to kick up their heels a bit. Alanna is quite cruel to Hannah on the trip, so Hannah leaves the group and goes off on her own to Mobile. Jason, who shows himself to be a friend par excellence, also leaves the group, rents a car, and finds Hannah walking disconsolately along the highway. They go to Mobile, where Hannah begins to devote herself in earnest to her quest to find her birth mother, an endeavor akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Hannah and Jason experience a number of challenging situations which I won't detail here, lest I spoil your viewing pleasure. Suffice it to say that Hannah locates the nurse who signed her birth certificate and, through her, learns the identity of her birth mother. In one of the movie's best scenes, we find that this nurse quit her job in an abortion clinic after Hannah's birth, having heard again and again that the fetuses being aborted "are just tissue that couldn't survive" and finally recognizing the lie within this statement. Hannah goes to law office of her birth mother and makes her identity known, but her birth mother rejects her. Extremely depressed, Hannah goes into a nearby cathedral to pray and ponder. It is late in the day, and a kind and gentle Catholic priest appears and tells her that he needs to close up the church. Hannah can't resist expressing her emotions and feelings, which begin to tumble out after her disclaimer to the priest that, "I need to tell you that I'm a Baptist." Hearing the story, the kindly priest doesn't pass judgment but tells her that forgiveness is the key to her equation. Invoking Colossians 3:13, he notes that the Apostle Paul exhorted the Colossians to "forgive each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you." Difficult though it may be, Hannah must forgive her birth mother. I'll leave it to you to find out what Hannah does in response to the priest's exhortation.
October Baby was directed by Alabama filmmaker brothers Jon and Andrew Erwin. The film is the first feature of this type that the brothers have worked on, much of their previous work having been done for ESPN. Plugged In Online has noted that the Erwins were encouraged to do the film by brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, members of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, and the producers / directors of such films as Facing the Giants, Flywheel, Fireproof, and Courageous.
The picture is well acted, mostly by relatively unknown actors: Rachel Hendrix as Hannah; Jason Burkey as Jason; Shari Rigby as Hannah's birth mother. The one famous actor is John Schneider, who plays Hannah's adoptive father, Dr. Jacob Lawson. Interestingly, Schneider, who is best known for performing the role of Bo Duke in the 1980s TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, became a born-again Christian a number of years ago when he stayed for a time with Johnny and June Carter Cash. It was mainly through talks with Johnny that Schneider came to faith.
So here's the bottom line: You owe it to yourself to see this picture. If you do, don't miss the riveting interview with Shari Rigby at the end of the film when the credits are rolling. Rigby accepted the role of the birth mother largely because she herself had gone through an experience much like the one recounted here.
Film Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 3 ¼ stars.
