Like Dandelion Dust

Jack and Molly Campbell are the well-to-do parents of six-year-old Joey who are informed, out of the blue, that their infant adoption was not legal. To make matters worse, Joey's biological father, until recently wholly unaware of the boy's existence, wants his child returned now that he's completed his seven year prison sentence for domestic abuse. A judge orders the child removed from his adoptive parents in Florida and flown to Ohio to live with his biological mother and father.

That is Like Dandelion Dust, a movie chronicling the lives of two sets of parents intent on raising young Joey and of the confused child caught in between. It goes without saying that to a point both sets of parents are sympathetic. Rip (a terrific Barry Pepper) has reformed and his desire for fatherhood fuels his efforts to rebuild his life. His wife, played to near perfection by Mira Sorvino, desires a simpler life, a life with a family, and her desire to be a mother to the child she gave up six years before is moving. But in the end both families are ripped apart, all for the love of a single, vulnerable child.

Like Dandelion Dust is a tearjerker, yes, and an audience pleaser. The script is very good and the editing and direction, in the capable hands of Jon Gunn, are fine. But it’s the performances and characterizations that stand out here, and they are strong enough to move most anyone, particularly one who knows firsthand the love of a child.