Jesse is a young African American woman who works at an NGO. She agrees to be the surrogate for her best friend Josh and his partner Aaron. Aaron is a lawyer and the three of them believe they have every possible aspect of the arrangement spelled out in a contract. The prenatal testing reveals that the baby has Down syndrome. And that scrambles everyone's ideas about what was happening. Jess finds a new purpose in reading about the DS and looks into community resources, and urges Jos hand Aaron to do the same. She even makes a special bond with Leon, a child with DS and his mother. But the couple are struggling to adopt with this new information and ask Jesse to abort the baby, since they feel they may not have the financial, emotional or other means to cope with a DS child’s heightened care requirements. But she is not so sure and she begins to do research on what would it take to raise the baby on her own. This, as you can expect, brings all sort of arguments between her and her best friends. And even people around her, think she is crazy. Eventually Jesse take a final decision.
Now this is a subject that almost any parent, or anyone who has ever considered becoming a parent will be able to relate to. The film asks some tough questions about parenting special needs children. Its not an easy watch, but i believe its pretty authentic. The film never gets over dramatic. There is a magical, nervous energy when Jesse, Josh and Aaron are together because no one wants to talk about the news they have just heard and they are going around getting more information. There’s a welcome complexity to the relationship and the actors here that them relatable, with some useful gaps left for our imaginations to fill in. I mean I can't stress enough how natural and good all of the actors are. A huge credit goes to the director for bringing out the best in everyone. Jesse's character is the most interesting but even the gay couple is not made out to be the bad people for taking the decision to not want the child. You do understand their point of view. They acknowledge their limitations with the wariness of two men for whom the right to marry and have children is a relatively recent gain. Wit no background score at all, the film subtly underlines the overall tension between nice people increasingly at odds with one another’s wishes.
The Surrogate is a thought-provoking drama about a very touchy subject about parenting for special needs children. Its also the mirror to the possible reality in which challenging experiences can shatter the loving friendships of chosen families. Highly recommend for lovers of some good cinema. (8.5/10)
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