Josie is a pretty blond hoping to start a new life for herself. The first thing she says is, "I wish to God I could go back to that day," so you know she's coping with tragedy.
She then says, "I'm wondering how my life ever came to this," so you know she's not coping well.
She has a new apartment. She unpacks pictures of children and talks about how her son's 13th birthday is coming up. To pay the bills, Josie (Jenny Levine, 24) finds work at a local restaurant, The Whistling Kettle. (Windsor natives know this to be a real diner in their town, where Baby Blues was filmed.)
She makes new friends, but whenever the subject of children comes up, Josie freezes. She never mentions her son to anyone else. Hints of what she experienced are offered through flashes of memory involving toddlers, open gates and sparkling blue water in a swimming pool. Uh, oh.
Josie meets a cute drifter named Max (Sean O'Neill). He too has secrets. Josie has a quiet life, mostly working, worrying, sleeping badly and seeing her shrink.
A type of romance develops with Max, and that makes Josie happier. Max writes Josie a dopey song and generally hangs around mooching and making calf eyes at her, but it makes Josie happy. She feels alive again.
Then one day a hostile woman turns up at the restaurant. Seems she has Josie's son, and she wants Josie to stay away and never contact him. Josie is devastated. She had been trying to work up the courage to contact her son, but now ...
After therapy and whatnot, Josie's maternal instincts take over and she determines to try to see her son. Her friends from the restaurant support her plans.
Her determination even helps a young co-worker decide what to do about her own future, but we won't dwell on that because it makes us paranoid that the movie might have a worrisome anti-choice message.
Baby Blues -- a triple play on words, as viewers will discover -- is a low-budget, indie film that has been packing theatres since it opened.
It played Windsor on Jan. 11 and scored the highest perscreen average in North America that weekend, and today it opens in 25 other Canadian centres.
For this viewer, the film plays just like an over-long TV movie of the week, and has not nearly enough material to warrant feature-film status.
Still, Baby Blues does offer good performances and a touching subject, so it will no doubt find an audience.
(This film is rated PG)
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