Like Dandelion Dust

Product Description Academy Award® Winner "Mira Sorvino is amazing” and Golden Globe® nominee “Barry Pepper is stunning” (Film Threat) in this emotionally gripping drama. Sorvino and Pepper star as Wendy and Rip Porter, a working-class couple fighting to regain custody of Joey--the young son Wendy gave up for adoption when Rip went to prison seven years earlier. But Joey’s adoptive parents will stop at nothing to ensure that the small boy stays in the only home he’s ever known. From a screenplay by Academy Award Nominee Stephen J. Rivele and Michael Lachance, and based on the novel by New York Times best-selling author Karen Kingsbury, Like Dandelion Dust is a “powerful story” with “a powerful cast...don’t miss it.” (ABC-TV) Amazon.com Like Dandelion Dust dramatizes an adoptive parent's worst nightmare: the birth parents of a young boy want him back. But this isn't a thriller or a maudlin movie-of-the-week--Like Dandelion Dust explores the fraught situation with empathy and intelligence. Rip Porter (Barry Pepper) has just been released from prison and reunited with his wife Wendy (Mira Sorvino), who confesses to him that she had his son and put the boy up for adoption while Rip was away. Rip, who had not given consent, decides to seek custody, overturning the lives of Jack and Molly Campbell (Cole Hauser and Kate Levering) and their beloved son Joey (Maxwell Perry Cotton, giving a remarkable performance). The plot doesn't express the movie's power; the emotional impact comes from the vivid, lived-in performances and attention to detail. When Joey comes to visit the Porters for the first time as part of an acclimation procedure, the scene is a fusion of hope, fear, and awkwardness as the Porters realize the complexity of making a family with a 6-year-old boy. As the Campbells grow more stricken by their impending loss, they pursue a rash solution; this could have turned into melodrama, but again, the movie's thoughtfulness keeps it from being manipulative. When tears come, Like Dandelion Dust has earned them. It's based on a Christian novel, but the film has no religious agenda. The extras are also engaging, including interviews with the book's author and one of the movie's producers about their own adoption experiences and an outstanding commentary track from director Jon Gunn and two producers, who discuss the film's production with humor and insight. Highly recommended. --Bret Fetzer