Like Dandelion Dust weaves the lives of two families brought together by a little boy Joey. Seven years earlier, Rip Porter was sent to prison for abusing his wife. While serving his time in jail, his wife, Wendy, discovers she's pregnant and releases the baby for adoption. For six years now, the Campbells have raised Joey and become his parents in the true sense of the word. However, on Rip's release from jail, Wendy tells him of the boy she let go. Having given up alcoholism and gone to anger management classes in jail, Rip feels ready to be a dad. So, using a loophole in the adoption paperwork, they receive custody of Joey. He has two visits with them and the third time he goes will be to live there. The Campbells feel ripped apart at the prospect of losing their son and will do anything it takes to get him back.
PRO
Wow! Where to begin with the pros.
~The idea of family is so lovingly portrayed. Even as each family fights to get custody, you never feel like Joey is just property, but realize that each couple loves him.
~Wendy is a wonderful wife to Rip, even, and especially, as he begins to fall back into old bad habits.
~The Campbells really work through as a couple the hard time of losing their son, even though it threatens to tear them apart.
~The social worker assigned to this heartrending case shows great love and understanding for these couples.
~Joey is shown to have no different feelings toward his parents when he finds out he was adopted.
There are so many more, but I'd have to write down the script to portray them all.
CONS
Honestly, I can't think of one. Maybe I'll take this to be more of a warning of some hard scenes to watch.
~Rip does drink and does hit Wendy, but it is shown to be a bad thing.
~On his second visit, Joey refuses to take a shower. Rip takes him into the shower with his clothes on in a misguided attempt to show him its okay, but ends up terrifying Joey and leaving a nasty bruise on his arm.
~Jack Campbell goes to offer Rip money to leave Joey alone and they get into a pretty violent fight.
LANGUAGE
I have been thinking over the movie and can't remember any bad language. Take that with a grain of salt....I may be missing something in my thinking. ;)
IMMORALITY
There are no scenes that need a caution here. Rip does sometimes wear his shirt open. Some of the necklines are a bit low.
RATING
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements including domestic violence and alcolhol abuse.
My mom and I went to see this film together. What a wonderful choice it was! We commented as we were leaving that you really didn't know how the story was going to end. It did such an incredible job showing both sides of the equation that it made it hard to know who would "win". It also made clear that someone was going to lose.
I told Mom before we went that it wasn't a "popcorn" movie, ie. a movie where it's has some slow, light moments to eat popcorn. This was an intense movie, but appropriate for the intense subject it was covering.
The message and situation really spoke to my mom and me. I was adopted when I was a baby and there was some legal snafoos that prevented the adopt from being final until I was 2 1/2. Watching the characters on screen struggle through such a hard place had us grabbing for tissues at the end.
But what an uplifting end it was!
For anyone in the Pensacola area, Like Dandelion Dust is playing at the Rave theatre off of West Street at 11:20 am, 1:50 pm, 4:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 10:20 pm.
