"Diary of an Adopted Child"

Author(s): André Marques
Location: Portugal

"Diary of an Adopted Child"

Director: Paul Haggis
Writer: Paul Haggis
Music: Philip Glass

Main Cast

Nicole Kidman (Julia)
Meryl Streep (Mrs. Crawford)
Abigail Breslin (Melanie)
Edward Norton (John)
Robert Redford (Mr. Crawford)

Tagline: "A grandmother’s love. A mother’s love. A child’s rejection"

Synopsis: As reading her own diary, a child named Melanie (Abigail Breslin) is going to tell you the experience of her life. Starting with her great love by her grandmother, Mrs. Crawford (Meryl Streep), Melanie will find that family has a lots of meanings. She doesn’t know why, but since she remembers being alive that she deals with this problem of her mother Julia (Nicole Kidman), cause she truly can’t love her the way she is supposed to.

And some day she will find out why. It’s because she is an adopted child. Oh ok, now she did understand and got mad with her, her mother and everybody, but never the grandmother, Mrs. Crawford. The whole family collapses by some different stuff. The father (Edward Norton) is an alcoholic and he doesn’t cares about anything, not even the grandfather (Robert Redford). Confronted with this, Julia sends Melanie to live with her grandmother, while she tries to find out who is Melanie’s family to stop the sadness of her adopted child. She will find this terrible thing: Mrs. Crawford is Melanie’s true grandmother. She then realizes that it isn’t only Melanie that is adopted, she also is. That’s when Mrs. Crawford dies before knowing that her beloved granddaughter is truly of her family. This family is then put in some darkest times, ending with Melanie living only with Mr. Crawford, finally in peace.

What the Press would say:

A magnificent well written script delivers us an astonishing drama that deals with different types of relationships, in different generations, with different feelings. Nicole Kidman is just terrific dealing with the sadness of her daughter and then confronted with her own situation similar to her daughters’. The rest of the cast is brilliant, with little Abigail Breslin in such a dramatic role, managing to overcome some of the others actors. A movie to not miss.

Categories:

Best Picture
Best Director: Paul Haggis
Best Original Screenplay: Paul Haggis
Best Original Score: Philip Glass
Best Actress: Nicole Kidman
Best Supporting Actress: Abigail Breslin
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton