Desperate Choices: To Save My Child

'Solomon's Choice' is a heart-warming film about how a child's illness has all sorts of ramifications for all the family and the rights of parents and children.

The film centres on Cassie Robbins, an energetic sixteen-year-old who has a close relationship with her father Richard and stepmother Mel and dotes on her six-year-old half-brother Willy. But when she is diagnosed with leukaemia and chemotherapy fails, a bone-marrow transplant remains her only hope of survival. And this is when Richard and Mel clash as Willy could be a potential match but his mother isn't willing to risk the procedure since the little boy had a bad reaction to anaesthetic when he was last operated on. Richard reacts harshly when he sees Mel's reluctance to test their son as an example of her protecting her 'real' child over her step-daughter. As their family starts to collapse, Willy himself becomes increasingly aware that he holds the key to saving his sister.

The quality of acting in the film surpassed what is usually expected in made-for-television dramas. Cassie, played by a teenage Reece Witherspoon, was excellent as a likable girl coping with the turmoil of possible terminal illness and who is willing to die if that's what it takes to protect her little brother. Bruce Davison, as Richard, and Joanna Kerns, as Mel, give strong performances as parents who fiercely love their children but have to defend their differing views under such gut-wrenching circumstances. And a small Joseph Mazzello (better known as Tim in 'Jurassic Park'), in the role of Willy, gives a very endearing portrayal of a little boy caught in a situation he doesn't understand yet determined to support his sister.

The story is depicted in a manner that is quite realistic, with parents lashing out-- sometimes violently-- in the face of their child's possible death and children struggling to cope with illness and what is happening to their previously happy family. The film does well in showing a rather balanced view of both Richard and Mel's views, without turning the latter into a wicked stepmother hoarding her natural son to herself and instead she is just shown to be a worried mother. That said, personally, it was hard to agree with her and it would have been interesting to have seen the consequences to the Robbins' marriage and to an older Willy had Cassie died without the transplant.

'Solomon's Choice' is still one of the better TV dramas out there and is certainly worth catching if it's ever on.

I have seen the movie and I thought it was sad towards the end of the movie. Reese Witherspoon as Cassie has Leukemia and the only way it might help Cassie to get better is from Willy for a bone donor. And at the end of the movie I was looking for something more like Willy went through the surgery and knowing thats what would of happen and known for sure if she got all better because it skipped through the bone donor I did not like how it ended well it tells you if you love someone you would do whatever the cost is. This is an excellent true story about the movie.I think you would enjoy watching it. I give it an A if you haven't seen this movie I would encourage you to buy it you might watch it over and over a couple of times

Michael

This is a typical made-for-TV heart-render, low budget, patchy acting and the story generally nothing that original. Let's take a family problem and do it by the usual numbers. Not my kind of thing and I watched it only because these film-makers lucked out by casting one of the best actors around, sixteen year old Reese in one of her earliest roles.

Two things are good here and they're very good. Reese was amazing even back then, lighting up every scene she's in, and that's most of them, delivering a masterclass to the more experienced folk around her - always totally believable and creating a character to really care about. The other one: here is a story with no bad guy, not even a selfish guy. Everyone is trying to look out for everyone else and yet 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' can still manage to tear them apart.

Bad things. Stuff was missing. Other reviewers have complained about the ending and this is one where viewers are left to pick their own. I didn't mind that but I didn't like that the brother's opinion is never sought or listened to - only discovered by accident. Yes, he's a little kid, he can't make the decision, but that shouldn't mean no-one cares what he thinks. A conversation is missing between Cassie and Mel - they are natural allies here and this would go a long way to mitigating Mel's blind stubbornness. Finally there's no apology from Mel for that stubbornness, which has put Cassie at greater risk.

If you like this kind of film at all, watch this one - Reese Witherspoon alone makes it outstanding for its genre.

This film was incredible. I was only 7 when it came out and I recorded it from tv and I just watched it again now, 11 years later. It's so much more than a sappy disease movie. It really makes you think about what you would have to do in their situation. It describes the situation between the step-mother, the father, and the brother. A huge part of the movie is whether or not they will allow their son to be a bone marrow donor. The whole time, I sided with the father, because the risks were small that he would be affected by it and he shouldn't have to grow up knowing that he could have saved his sister's life. A+++ I guarantee it to anyone who doesn't mind crying.