My Flesh and Blood

Directed by Jonathan Karsh

Opening exclusively at the E Street Cinema 2/20/2004

3.5 *

Those awaiting Mel Gibson’s cinematic testament The Passion of the Christ this Friday can see a more earthly proof of God’s love and existence in My Flesh and Blood, one of the most emotionally heartfelt and wrenching movies that this reviewer has ever seen.

Susan Tom’s Fairfield, CA (a Bay area suburb) home is residence to over a dozen. Though divorced and with older children she gave birth to, Susan has adopted 11 special needs children including a son Anthony whose genetic skin disorder requires 12 hours of specialized care each week just to bathe him. In several sequences in the movie we see him enduring this excruciatingly painful treatment with a courage and stoicism that is inspiring.

Filmmaker Jonathan Karsh observes the Tom family over the span of a school year and during that time we see a family that is remarkably normal. Yes, the kids all have a variety of deformities and handicaps that one cannot help but notice including a daughter whose face has been severely burned, two daughters without legs, and some children with a variety of mental and physical handicaps. However, once you get past that, the kids are (with one exception) remarkably well-adjusted. Sure there is never enough time and resources are always stretched, but their home is one with a great deal of love.

The most annoying as well as the most heart-rending of the kids’ stories is Joe. Afflicted with cystic fibrosis, the 15-year-old is further encumbered by the usual teen angst, being small for his age, a birth mother who is more involved than the others (but still unable to be part of Joe’s life in more than a cursory fashion), a bipolar disorder, and frequent hospitalizations for the c.f.—although one could make the point that Joe’s biggest handicap is the absence of a father figure as he grows towards manhood in a household dominated by females. While his birth mother repeatedly lets him down (although her story is told with a great deal of sympathy as she confesses that in saving her son, Susan has also saved her), Joe’s acting out becomes much worse and he begins to verbally attack his better-adjusted sisters with malicious references to their afflictions.

Also touching is the part of the movie detailing the story of Susan’s birth daughter Margaret who is beginning college, but feels guilt for not being able to be more helpful to her mother in taking care of her brothers and sisters. The audience is brought into Margaret’s world where there is never enough time for all that these kids need.

More charming and less troubled is the boy crazy Xenia. Though lacking legs, the 13-year-old seems the most popular kid in her school (and a contrast to the more outwardly normal looking Joe). Not only is she vivacious and a fun-loving natural leader, she is every bit the loveable big sister to her younger siblings. Xenia also takes part in a Halloween sketch where she is the perfect candidate to play the magician’s assistant whose “legs” are sawn off.

Director Karsh really shines in a sequence near the end of the movie. From a shot of a church exterior, he cuts to an interior and the question of whether they are all just attending mass is answered by the sadness of the children. The camera slowly cuts from face to face as the audience begins ticking down the roster of faces as we realize with mounting horror whose face has not been seen. Karsh then cuts to a grieving Barbara as she recounts the story of which of her kids has lost the good fight. It is in this part of the movie that the documentary of the Tom family’s story transcends the merely inspirational.

My own review is an inadequate description of this superior movie. It is likely only to last a week at the E Street Cinema so best hurry. Washington moviegoers should be grateful that they had a chance to see My Flesh and Blood at all.

–Bill Henry

Related Reading:

Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (with DVD and Writing about Movies Booklet)

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies (Book & Cassette)

The Independent Film Producer's Survival Guide: A Business and Legal Sourcebook

The Art of Watching Films with Tutorial CD-ROM

Attack of the 'B' Movie Posters (The Illustrated History of Moves Through Posters Series Vol. 14)