A sober and thoughtful recreation of the bizarre true-life case of a 12-year-old boy who made legal history in the US (where else? ) by suing his own parents for divorce so that he could be adopted by loving foster parents. A big bonus for the film is the casting in the central role of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, so moving as the boy later played as an adult by Craig Scheffer in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It and in the lead role of the comedy Holy Matrimony. He is excellent as the youngster who tires of being shunted between an unstable, alcoholic father and his mother and longs to settle down with a decent couple and their children. The assured direction is by Linda Otto, whose enthusiasm for films with a message about childhood trauma (she also made the highly acclaimed Adam and The Ryan White Story) is fuelled by the fact that she was sexually abused herself at the age of 11.

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