Comment

Aug 22, 2017Janice21383 rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
It's well-understood that the words "Based On a True Story" slapped on a movie usually mean "connected to truth, or reality as we know it, only in passing", and October Baby is no exception. International fetal rights crusader Gianna Jessen, the person on whom this film is loosely based, survived an attempt to abort her, and is a woman. That's it for similarities. Well, how is the movie? The acting and TV-level production are nothing special, so let's look at the writing (warning: SPOILERS for the entire plot; but TL; DR -- it's not good.) Not that you'd ever know, but beautiful, perfect coed Hannah suffers from several physical and mental problems. When she collapses onstage at the school play, no less, doctors determine all her issues are caused by being a survivor of a late-term abortion. How, I don't know. Shocked, she and her (platonic, natch) friend Jason go on a sleuthing expedition to confront her birth mother. A police officer catches them breaking into the now vacant hospital where she was born, because that's how medical records are stored. When he hears of her mission, he gives her the home address of the nurse who signed her birth certificate, because that's how policing professionals work. The nurse remembers Hannah's case two decades later, and also that her mother “had to go to school, she had to have a career.” She gives Hannah her mother's address, because medical confidentiality is not a thing. Her mother is now a striving lawyer who seems to have nearly forgotten she ever attempted an abortion. She brusquely denies Hannah's existence and hops into her Mercedes. Meanwhile, Hannah's adoptive parents are shocked, shocked! that their adult daughter was travelling alone with a man; however, Jason makes a man-to-man apology to her father and it's cool. Hannah seeks guidance at a Catholic church, has an epiphany, and forgives her mother. The film ends with Hannah returning to college, but it is heavily hinted that she and Jason will eventually be married. SHE will never become a career woman, or neglect her family by becoming an international crusader. The End.