Martian Child (Recommended Movie on Adoption)

This weekend we watched a great movie called Martian Child. If you haven't seen it, it's about a widower (John Cusak) who decides to adopt a troubled young boy, a boy who believes he's from Mars and spends his days inside a cardboard box instead of playing with other kids. Even with the difficult themes of emotional abuse and abandonment, the story is funny and heartwarming and presents the adoption of older kids in an honest yet hopeful way. I loved it!

It's so rare to watch a well-written, clean movie these days so kudos to New Line for giving us a family story without all the extra junk (apparently they edited the foul language out for the DVD version--double kudos).

As a writer, the characters in this movie are a great study (not to mention the main character happens to be a novelist who uses his love of science fiction to relate to the child). If you're not a writer, I hope you watch it as well. When it's done, you'll want to hug your kids, and if you've been considering adoption, you may be inspired to open your home to a child who needs a family.