Baby M (1988)

The garbage man's wife carries the burden of pregnancy for the rich doctor

I just watched this movie recently for the first time in many years. As you may know, "Baby M" is the story of a suburban home-maker (Mary Beth Whitehead) who decided to be a surrogate mother for an affluent professional couple from Tenafly (Betsy & William Stern.) But after the birth of her daughter (named Sara Whitehead by her mother, Melissa Stern by her biological father, and otherwise known as "Baby M") Mary Beth knew that she could not part with her own flesh and blood.

I found this movie to be very biased and favorable only towards the allegedly-infertile couple. The performance of JoBeth Williams (portraying Mrs. Whitehead, now Mrs. Gould) was somewhat over-the-top. It was like she became this hysterical, screaming zombie after her baby was born and the producers did nothing to explain this sudden transformation.

If you are interested in finding out the facts about Baby M (unfortunately there is very little info on the Internet about this case as it predates the 90's and was overall a local story that was mostly watched in the suburban NY area) then I would certainly recommend reading: A Mother's Story by Mary Beth Whitehead.

This movie was originally produced as a two-part miniseries for ABC TV. It was originally shown in two, two hour blocks during two different days of the week (in 1988.) It has since been shown on Lifetime TV and is now on home-video. Please know that this home-video is the full-length movie, 3 hours and 14 minutes total (it includes the original opening and closing credits for both of the 2 hour TV movies, and also includes sections for commercials that state "place commercial here" these are inserted for about 5 seconds or less.) This film also includes performances by: Dabney Coleman (as the Stern's attorney), Brian Austin Green (as Mary Beth Whitehead's son), John Shea (as William Stern), and Jenny Lewis (as Mary Beth Whitehead's older daughter.)

The Baby M saga is very interesting because at the time it made history and set a standard. It also depicts the harmful bigotry that plague middle-class families in this country. Unfortunately this telepic does not delve into any of the socioeconomic and social bias that Mary Beth and her husband and family were the collective victims of.
June 1, 2007

Slant?

I actually think the slant in this movie was toward Mary Beth-- her story seemed to get far more screen time and detail then the Sterns' story did. One thing I found odd though was the fact that Mary Beth (JoBeth Williams) had her head covered during the baby's baptism. Almost NO Catholic women still covered their heads in church by the mid-1980s! November 9, 2005

One of the Worst...

Where do you begin with this film. It is the perfect example of why "based on a true story" can be so misleading. This film was made before the court issues were even completely resolved and was rushed out to capitalize on an incredible and important court case. The acting is putrid and there are an incredible amount of inaccuracies. The filmmakers obviously had a slant toward the Stern's and never fairly represented Ms. Whitehead's point of view. The $2.50 they are asking for this film is $7 too much since you will have to pay shipping. Avoid this unless you love horrific B-Rated made for TV garbage. September 13, 2005

A True Drama!!

This drama is based on the 80's court case between the custody of a baby between the surrogate mother and their adoptive parents.It's a must see!! February 2, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...