Movies Reviews

Movie Review: little man

By Ron Wilkinson Dec 1, 2005, 9:59 GMT

When rendering an opinion of “little man,” one must separate the story from the film. Unfortunately, neither redeem the finished product. The story is the conception, gestation, birth and first two years in the life of director/writer Nicole Conn’s son, Nicholas. Nicholas is one of a growing number of children that are the result of external insemination and gestation in a surrogate mother; a procedure that is about as foreign to mother nature as birth can get. Same sex partners Conn and Gwen Baba had a daughter and decided they wanted another child (or, rather, Nicole decided she wanted another child). As a result of that decision, Conn and Baba embarked on a convoluted path of high-tech medical procedures that resulted in the premature birth of Nicholas, a child that will live his entire life with severe neurological damage.

Born 100 days premature, Nicholas’ early delivery was forced when the surrogate mother was found to have skyrocketing blood pressure as well as a variety of other chronic physical ailments (missing a kidney?). Although Conn has crafted a picture mainly about motherly love she fails to explain exactly how she and Baba, apparently bright women, managed to make the tragic mistake of choosing a surrogate mother with a blood pressure that eventually topped 200 and is missing internal organs. Nor does she accept her part in this failure of due diligence that would bring to life a boy facing a life of blindness, gastrointestinal failure and periodic seizures.What we see in the first half of the movie is an army of surgeons and a warehouse of medical apparatus that would make a president’s bedside at Bethesda Navel Hospital look like kids playing doctor. No expense or expertise is too much to be applied to Nicholas twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Throughout this entire time Conn is on the hospital’s nurses and doctors like ink on a strip chart to make sure everything possible is done to ensure her son’s survival. If only she would have shown this same level of concern when choosing the surrogate mother.Gwen Baba is described as a “political philanthropist” which means she has big bucks and is connected. Hence the lavish medical care the couple can bring to bear on their son’s damaged nervous system. One can’t help but wonder how many other babies’ lives could have been saved with the wealth showered on the offspring of this privileged couple; how many children born to the poor could have had the benefit of normal lives through well-mother care and simply normal, routine after-birth care with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it took to merely allow the permanently disabled Nicholas to survive. At one point in the film Conn thanks God for the fact that premature babies in California are considered disabled and therefore qualify for around the clock nursing and emergency medical care at taxpayers’ expense. It’s lucky for her the taxpayers didn’t get to vote on her particular case or she and her partner might have been doing the full time nursing themselves. So much for the story.

Nicole Conn & Nicholas Conn-Baba Hand-in-Hand.

At the risk of going National Geographic, some information about the medical details of an extremely premature birth and the subsequent technology of survival might have been interesting. But Conn doesn’t go there. She wants to stick with the emotions of the situation. But the emotions never change; nor does the forlorn look on her face as she ponders the situation for nearly two hours. The film simply drags. But in spite of the film-maker’s tedious descriptions of her life, the ultimate void in the film is her failure to take responsibility.

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KellyMay 13th, 2006 - 02:04:00

I think constructive criticism is necessary. But your critique of this film was just blatantly rude. Are you insinuating that people who have established wealth should not use it in the care of their children? That instead of going to extremes to save Nicholas, she should have instead, given her money away to save other children, and just let Nicholas die? If this is your philosophy, you are certainly entitled. But, yours is not a place in which I would want to live.

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SarahMay 16th, 2006 - 19:26:08

As a parent of twin preemies I can intimately say that what Nicole puts on the screen is the bare bones truth. She certainly could have spent time talking about prematurity statistics but she chose instead to speak to power of family. I would never, ever want anyone to have to go through the harrowing decision of life over death. As a parent I have had to make that decision, one that no one should ever have to make. I firmly believe that Nicholas survived in order to help us learn to be more compassionate.

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LindseyJun 21st, 2006 - 21:30:35

I believe that this film was quite amazing and it showed the struggles and the highs and the lows... For you to review this is such a rude heartless way is quyite annoying and stupid. This movie was wonderfull and it opened my eyes to the heart ache of premies and their families

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Judge and JurySep 4th, 2006 - 04:29:23

I don't think we should be judge and jury over something we have such little true understanding about. The idea of 'quality of life' is subjective and one cannot imagine the roller coaster of emotions this family endured. Seeing his enormous smile, hearing his joyful laughter I wonder if he would have wanted to be spared his suffering only to have missed the obvious love he experiences with his family. I recall in the film that the surrogate mother mislead them about her health and it wasn't until later they learned of her previous complications and health issues.

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Danielle ShamiehJan 5th, 2007 - 02:09:03

I think your comments are rather rude. Being a Mother myself of a now 16 month old daughter born at 26 weeks 3 months premature. You have no idea what we as parents have to go through in the NICU no idea at all. The ups and downs having to call hour after hour to check on your baby praying with each number dialed and each ring that she is ok no heart rate drops or bad de stats that hour. My suggestions do more research on premature birth then maybe you can rewrite when you get more knowledge.

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Little Man SupporterJan 9th, 2007 - 00:48:53

Wow...it seems to me that you missed some keys parts of the film. Several times throughout the movie Nicole does address her responsibility for Nicholas' birth. One of the key phrases I recall is, 'at what cost life?' She also talks about how her choices to bring him into the world and keep him here haunt her in the night, wondering if she's doing the right thing or if passionately championing his life is hurting him more than helping him. Also, you bring up that Gwen and Nicole did not research their surrogate well enough. That is also addressed in the film. Rather than posting a listing in a paper or online to find their own surrogate, they opted to use a reputable surrogacy agency that had strict health and history screenings when selecting candidates. Obviously the Agency did not do its research as promised. Lastly, I attended a medical screening of this film in Tarzana, CA a few months ago. If this film is so poorly made, why is it winning awards at national and international film festivals, and why is it being used for training in hospitals, NICUs, universities, nonprofits, and support groups around the world? I suggest you do your research into this growing epidemic. Remember this is a documentary, not fiction.

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