***Alert: May allude to some scenes and themes that could contain what some might deem "spoilers."***

As someone else said: "Wow, where do I start?" ... I LOVED this movie. I was not familiar with the director's previous work, but he is definitely on my radar now. The cast was incredible. What a fantastic mix of people. I mean, come on, Samuel L. Jackson, Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Elizabeth Peña, and Jimmy Smits. And those are just the "big" stars. The rest of the cast was equally outstanding. One standout performance was given by the beautiful Kerry Washington. So incredibly powerful.

But, what really blew me away about this film was the authenticity of the many themes about life, love, family, children, parenthood, hope, loss and redemption that the director wove together so brilliantly. The screenplay resonated with me on so many levels. The dialogue rang true on so many levels. I'm sorry to say I don't know her name, but the actress who portrayed Washington's mother was incredible, too. The monologue she delivered during the scene where her daughter is struggling with new motherhood is golden. She delivered her lines with the authenticity of a woman who has lived a full and rich life. Just dynamite. I can't say more. Loved her!

The funny story is that I had already watched this movie on cable alone, but re- ordered it through Netflix to see if my husband might be interested in watching it. I was worried he'd dismiss it as a "chick flick," (such a sexist term, BTW), but he became instantly absorbed in the story, and wound up loving it, too. He was haunted for days, remembering Watts' performance and the destiny of her character.

Someone here gave the film a low rating because she didn't like the characters. She found the women, particularly, unlovable, and without redemption. But that's just one of the many themes that makes this film so outstanding. People are not perfect. We fall in love with each other, despite our shortcomings, thankfully. I thought the script, performances and direction were all very subtle in conveying these complex and multitextured human realities.

Just beautiful.

This was so painful and hard, how a mother can easily give up on her child. It's a piece of her, person another person else! that's really so deep, that Allah gives one a child and another not. it makes me think carefully before getting a baby out to this cruel world.

I've really enjoyed this upset movie.

Absolutely conventional, boring, predictable Hollywood schmaltz! Another soul-numbing movie written from a standard chick-flick template. I only watched it through to the end to see if I predicted the ending. I did. It completely caters to the lazy, obtuse film goer that doesn't care to be challenged in any way. That is to say, most of today's film watcher. This movie's been made thousands of times before, and will be made many times again.