Foster (2011)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Disturbing yet enthralling

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Zooey (Toni Collette) is having trouble getting pregnant. Her husband Alec (Ioan Gruffudd) is having trouble with his toy business. They decide to adopted a child. He's a strange little boy. Along with a strange homeless guy (Richard E. Grant), they start to dig up their past tragedy and recover their lives together.There isn't enough magic in this movie. That is the biggest missing ingredient. This is relying a lot on the kid. The directing style isn't helping him any. The level of production is some kind of TV movie.Then there is the unrealism of the toy business. The big orders ending seems more like a high school play. It's a nice sweet story, but there's just nothing great in it.

What a great heart felt Movie. I loved this movie. Eli played such a magical part in this movie. I even cried during parts of it. Thanks so much for making such a caring and heart felt movie. I truly loved the spirit of this movie. I hope to see many more movies like this. They just bring the best out of people. I wish, life could be more like this everyday. The cast of this movie was wonderful. Please continue to make more movies like this. I would love to know more movies with Maurice Cole in them. He is a great little actor. Thanks again for bringing the Christmas Spirit into our lives. More people should live their lives this way and get back to the simple things in life, that truly matter. We need to get back down to earth and get away from all of the electronics, that seem to have taken over our lives. We all need to get back to what family means and cherish the families that we have.

I tend not to watch films like this one, but I watched this movie with my two little daughters on Sky this weekend, and it was a good experience.My two little girls did not stop talking the next day about the little boy who showed up out of the blue in their foster parents doors steps with no notice.We did enjoy the way that the movie was written and how the characters interacted with this little boy, Eli, was nicely done.We did notice how Eli's foster mom and dad dealt with each event Eli was bringing to their lives.I am not so sure if I understood some of the negative comments from other reviewers about the film, but being able to watch PG and G rated movies with one's kids, should be a pleasant experience.

In this day and age it is becoming increasingly difficult to find movies that I can show to my 99-year-old mother. If there is the least bit of profanity or gratuitous violence, she just won't watch any more! So it was wonderful to see "Foster" and I look forward to inviting Ma to come and see it.What an amazing little actor is Maurice Cole! Unfortunately, there is almost nothing about him on IMDb - not even his birthdate and so I am still wondering if, as the plot says, he was actually just seven years old when Foster was shot. If he was, then he is amazing! His clear and accurate pronunciation of some quite long and technical words would, I should imagine, put him into the child prodigy category. The only reason we won't see a lot more of him is if his parents decide that that don't want him to fall into the many traps that seem to await child stars.The story is lovely - just nice people doing nice things and attempting to cope with life's challenges and setbacks. The only reservation that I had about the whole movie was the selection of Toni Collette as Zooey. I would love to have seen Sandra Bullock in that role! And why did an Aussie actress have a sort of Scottish accent? Her mother didn't and the film wasn't set in Scotland (as far as I could tell), her husband had his own natural very slight Welsh accent so that was, to me, a distraction because, rather than give the story my whole attention, I found myself wondering about that.Nevertheless, a delightful film that will please Ma and my grandchildren equally.