Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Annie Adoption Movie Review
In perhaps the most anticipated and widely-promoted
adoption-relevant movie of the year, Sony Pictures revisits the story of Annie.
Played by Quvenzhané Wallis, who was so brilliant in the excellent film Beasts of the Southern Wild, Annie lives in New York City. She has been in foster care
for almost her whole life; she was found, abandoned with a note, outside of a
restaurant when she was only 4 years old. Currently, Annie lives with Miss
Hannigan, a bitter, disillusioned former singer who now takes care of foster
kids for income. Annie shares a room with three or four other girls, and Miss
Hannigan requires them to do much of the upkeep of her home.
When the foster home is visited by a caseworker, Annie finds paperwork which provides her with some of her case history. She heads out to the hall of records with the hopes of finding out who and where her birthparents are. However, She’s not able to find out very much.
On the way home, she is nearly hit by a car, but is saved by
Mr. Stacks, a wealthy entrepreneur who is in the middle of a dismal campaign
for mayor. Stacks’ advisor suggests that it would be good for his publicity if
he takes Annie in as a foster child, and so he does. He initially views her as
a bother, but comes to care for her. However, one of his advisors believes that
Annie has served her purpose by getting some good publicity for Stacks’
campaign, and begins to plot for her to leave.
Without Stacks’ knowledge, his advisor arranges for two
people to present themselves, pretending to be Annie’s parents. He has coached
them so that their ruse will convince Stacks and Annie. The ploy is successful,
and the imposter parents go away with Annie. She quickly learns that she has
been misled, and feels heartbreakingly betrayed by Stacks, whom she had come to
love. When Stacks learns about this foul play, he immediately pursues Annie’s
kidnappers, rescues her, and convinces her of his desire to commit to caring for
her for a lifetime.
How Does This Connect
to Adoption and Foster Care?
Annie is in foster care. Like many kids in care, she is
resilient. She maintains her optimism and cheerfulness in spite of
disappointments and unkindnesses that she experiences.
Annie misses and longs for her birthparents. She dreams
about them, and joins the other girls in her bedroom in a song imagining what
their birthparents are like. Annie holds out hope that she will find her
birthparents again. Every Friday, she waits all night by the restaurant where
she was abandoned, years ago. Annie is in foster care because she was
abandoned, and has no idea who or where her parents are. Most of the foster
kids that I’ve worked with do know who their parents are, and are often engaged
in visits and services geared towards reunification; that’s one disconnect
between the movie and the real-life experiences of most kids in foster care.
All the kids in Annie’s foster home hope to be adopted, but
some are discouraged. One says, “I’m almost 13, and no one wants teens.” Annie
extends hope that she will be adopted, “You will. We all will.”
It seems that Annie will ultimately be adopted by Stacks;
after she is rescued from her imposter parents, she and Stacks sing about
spending their lives together as a family. We never do get resolution about
where Annie’s actual birth parents are.
Strong Points
Annie is courageous, smart, hopeful and optimistic, like
many kids in foster care.
Stacks often refers to Annie as an orphan. Annie corrects
him, “I’m a foster kid, not an orphan. I have parents.” This is a helpful
distinction to make on such a large stage. Kids in foster care are aren’t
orphans, and the primary goal in foster care is almost always reunification.
It’s important for foster parents – and society! – to remember, embrace, and
support that. Early in her time with Stacks, she is asked whether he will adopt
her. She protests, “No, no, no! I have parents. This is just temporary!”
In one scene, Annie sees her reflection and her baby picture
at the same time. I can imagine that being a powerful image for anyone, but
especially for people who were raised without a full knowledge of their early
history.
Annie doesn’t know how to read; she explains that she has
been able to hide this so far. In fact, her explanation is heartbreaking, “It’s
not like the whole world wants a foster kid to begin with, and plus it’s
embarrassing. I didn’t want anyone to know.” When Stacks learns this, he gets
Annie a tutor; she responds very well, and quickly learns how to read. Many
kids in foster care struggle academically, but so often the cause is a lack of
time and opportunity to learn. Stacks asks how this can happen and someone
responds that in the system, “people get lost.” Foster kids are very often
smart, and can thrive when given the opportunity to do so. Annie captures that.
Stacks does a good job of joining with Annie when she is
ashamed of her inability to read. He tells her, “Everybody’s got something they
don’t want anyone to know.”
At one point, Annie is having a breakdown. Stacks tells her,
“You’ve gotta tell me what’s going on.” Annie responds, “No I don’t. You’re not
my dad.” Stacks responds well, and softens his tone, “No, I’m not your dad. I
know. But I’d like to know what’s going on.” This works, and Annie is able to
confide in him. Stacks also insists that Annie won’t need to leave, even when
they’re confronted with a problem. He says, “I don’t care what happened. You
stay here.”
Stacks eventually puts his care for Annie in front of his
ambitions of gain. He and Annie agree to tie a permanent knot, to make
themselves a family.
Challenges
Annie spends much of the film as a commodity, first for Miss
Hannigan and then for Mr. Stacks.
Eventually, both adults realize and turn from
their unhealthy attitudes towards Annie, and take a genuine interest in her.
It is very sad that Annie waits, several hours, every
Friday, for several years, outside of the restaurant where she was abandoned,
hoping that her parents would come back for her. It’s perhaps even sadder that
she is able to do this without her foster mother realizing. She has kept her
parents’ abandonment note, and reads it often, dreaming about them. When she sings
about them, she imagines that they are young, smart, and good, and says that
their only mistake “was giving up me.” She pleads, “Won’t you please come get
your baby?” Kids in foster care do think about their parents, and when there is
no accurate information, kids tend to dream up new information. Sometimes it’s
worse than realistic, sometimes it’s better than realistic, but it’s often
unrealistic – and sometimes their imagined reality is hidden from those that
are caring for them. This reminds me how important it is to provide kids with
age-appropriate, but honest, information about their stories all along.
When Annie finds her foster care record, she exclaims,
“Damn! I’ve been in a lot of homes.” Sad, but true, for many kids in foster care.
And it’s easy for parents and professionals to see a case file with lots of
homes and assume that the child is very challenging or has lots of problematic
behaviors. I’ve worked with many kids who were moved, not because of their
behaviors, but because of the foster parents’ issues. It’s almost never “just”
the kid. At one point, Annie thinks
that Stacks will have her leave. She packs her bags, and tells him “I’ve had a
lot of practice getting kicked out of places.” This could be a hard scene for
kids, but it could also be helpful because, by this scene, Stacks has come to
care about Annie and insists that she does not need to leave.
Stacks learns to love when Annie teaches him how. She shows
him the value of letting people into his heart. He says, “Annie gave me what I
didn’t know I needed.” It would be better, though, if Annie learned from, and
could depend on, her caretaker for emotional support, rather than vice versa.
Annie’s
sensitivity and emotional maturity is certainly a virtue, but it’s unfair to
her to have to use it to help an adult – who is in charge of her care – to
grow. Some kids in foster care have been expected previously to function in a
parental role for their younger siblings – sometimes, this leads to what is
sometimes called “parentified” behavior. For a while, Annie seems to be in a
parental role (psychoeducationally, at least,) over Stacks. Kids watching this
film should be reminded that really, it’s never a kid’s job to get a parent to
be loving and kind. That’s one thing that kids should be able to take for granted.
Annie keeps her desire for her birthparents secret from
Stacks because she doesn’t want to bother him. This is sometimes a dynamic in
adoptive families – and probably in foster families – where adoptees and foster
kids don’t want to seem disloyal to their new family by revealing their
retained loyalty for their first family.
Weak Points
After longing for her birthparents for the whole movie,
Annie seems to forget them once Stacks demonstrates his intention to adopt her.
While permanency can help a child move on with the life that they have, it is a
bit disappointing that we never do learn about Annie’s parents, and the only
“parents” we find for her are kidnappers. Her imposter parents basically kidnap
her. The fact that the reunion makes a mockery of Annie’s dreams, and is
covered and celebrated by the New York media, could be very troubling for young
viewers in foster care or adoptive families.
Although she eventually becomes kinder, Miss Hannigan is
generally a horrible foster mother, and she fits the unfortunate, untrue, but
often-believed stereotypes of foster parents. She’s in it only for the money.
She calls Annie “you little rat.” She belittles Annie, telling her that the
world doesn’t “need a smart-mouthed little rat,” and saying that because the world
doesn’t need Annie, that’s why Annie’s in foster care. She also tells her,
“You’re only here because I get $157 a week from the state for you.” She wakes
the girls by spraying them with water, and withholds food until they complete
their chores. She tells the children, “Clean like your life depends on it,
because it does.” Her cruelty has impacted the foster kids’ view of the world.
They sing, “Instead of kisses, we get kicked; no one cares for you a bit, when
you’re a foster kid.” Miss Hannigan cruelly kicks Annie out of her home,
telling her, “I told the inspector I don’t want to foster you any more. As of
next week, you’re somebody else’s problem… Not a who, a where. A group home.
Maybe that’ll teach you to open your mouth.” This scene could be very hard, and
possibly a trigger, for kids who have suffered from disrupted placements. Miss
Hannigan also cooperates in having Annie abducted by imposter parents.
The two social workers in the movie aren’t very good at
their jobs. The home inspector who visits Miss Hannigan leaves confidential
information laying on the floor, and doesn’t seem to realize that Miss Hannigan
is trying to seduce him. The administrator who serves Annie at the records
office is disinterested, dismissive and rude. Some real-life social workers in
the foster care system fit these stereotypes at times, but most of us actually
still care deeply about the kids and families we serve, and really desire to do
our work respectfully and competently. If Annie had been served by any of the
workers I supervise, I think she would have had a better experience. Perhaps the most concerning thing, though, is
the low level of supervision provided by the social workers. Miss Hannigan is a
horrible foster mother. Mr. Stacks’ motivations for fostering Annie were very
poor, and his “home study” was only superficial. The social worker even obeyed
when she was told she couldn’t examine a particular room. Annie was turned over
to imposter parents because the social services department didn’t examine them
thoroughly. These are troubling and unfortunate ideas for the general
population to have about how foster care works, and they’re (hopefully!)
generally untrue.
Recommendations
Annie’s positive attitude shines in the midst of
unrealistically and unhelpfully negative stereotypes of incompetent social
workers and greedy foster parents. The songs are upbeat and catchy, the film is
happy, and many of the kids in the theater where I screened it seemed to enjoy
it thoroughly. One girl danced throughout the credits. But I can also imagine
the film being challenging for kids who have had a rough experience in foster
care; it will be important for parents to tell them ahead of time that the film
features a very bad foster parent who is not like most foster parents. Kids who
have suffered from disrupted placements or who long to be adopted, or who long
for absent birthparents might find this film very hard – for those kids,
parents should probably screen it first before deciding whether to share it
with their kids.
Outside of those concerns, the movie is generally
family-friendly, and should be good for kids ages 8 and up. Annie does
exemplify several strengths of foster kids – she is hopeful, brave,
resourceful, and resilient.
Questions for
Discussion
Do you think Annie will still look for her birthparents now
that Stacks is going to adopt her?
How did Annie stay so hopeful, even in hard times?
Is it possible to be loyal to more than one family at the
same time?
What can you do to help foster kids (or a particular foster
kid) thrive? Would you consider mentoring, or serving as a Big Brother, Big
Sister, or CASA worker?
Activity idea: With your child, create an artistic
combination of your child’s current picture alongside one of the earliest
pictures you have of her. What a great introduction to a conversation about
“how much you’ve grown already!”
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I've been looking forward to this movie for about one year now. We saw the preview when we saw "Frozen." In the original movie (not sure about the play) they do say that Annie's birth parents died in a fire. I wonder why they did away with that reference.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I'm just happy that Annie isn't in an actual orphanage, and that they've at least tried to get some of foster care right. It would have been very easy for them to just change the time without changing the elements of the story.
Hi Robyn! I remember seeing the preview for Annie a long time ago, too. I'm not sure why, in this film, Annie's parents' absence isn't fully resolved. But, that is more common in my experience of foster care - most of the time, the kids' parents are alive, somewhere. And I value that this film makes the point that foster kids have parents, and aren't orphans. I think this is a good remake, while also noticing some things that might make it hard for some viewers.
DeleteThere was a book novel that gave more info on the movie, I remember reading it at Target when Annie came out, According to the novel They tried to find the parents but Annie's birth parents had already died years earlier from an illness, The dad left Annie wrapped in a blanket as an infant on Miss Hannigan's doorstep hoping he would return. I think his wife got the illness first and died and the father got sick and died a few days later. I forgot their names but it was very interesting reading about them since the movie never cleared up of what became of them.
DeleteAnd yes the 1982 film stated the parents were killed in a fire, I think the 1999 version of Annie said they passed away too
Thanks, Goldfishlover. I wasn't familiar with the story in the novel or in the earlier films - it's helpful to know what happened!
DeleteThank you for relating the film to real life foster care and adoption with remarkable insight.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mirah!
DeleteWhat a great review! I live in Japan, therefore, unfortunately I will not be able to see this movie any time soon. I am an adoptee and I blog about adoptees/adoption. You have an awesome list of adoption related movies. I will be sharing this on my Facebook page: I Am Adopted
ReplyDeletePlease check out at www.thenotsosecretlifeofanadoptee.com
Hi Jessenia! Thanks for your kind words, and for sharing your site with me, and my site with your readers. I appreciate it a lot!
DeleteDidn't see the movie, but aren't foster parents supposed to show a regular source of income before they foster a child? There are foster parents who "slip through the cracks of the system", but a foster parent is supposed to demonstrate some kind of source of income, even if it is an SSI check, in New York City.
ReplyDeleteI was really bogthered by this portrayal of foster parents in this film.
I organize a monthly a monthly support group for foster parents in Lower Manhattan and have gotten to know many of the children whom they foster. If people knew the scrutiny that foster parents have to go through, as well as the biological parents of the children sometimes, they would realize how inaccurate the portrayal of foster care is in this film.
DeleteHi Ichiou! Yes! Foster parents do need to show that they are self-supporting before they can become foster parents, at least in California. The support group you run sounds very valuable!
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ReplyDeleteThis is my son's favorite movie. He loves watching it over and over. It comes with a digital copy, which is great because my son accidentally broke the disc taking it out of the case. Its a cute take on the classic Annie, with some modern twists. The music is catchy too.
ReplyDeleteMariz
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