"I Am Somebody's Child" is a gripping story of an orphan and ward of the state, who bonds with a kind social worker at the state facility in Virginia where the child is warehoused. The special relationship of the two characters was beautifully developed and was based on a true story.

Regina Louise was a young black girl abandoned by her family in 1966, shuttled around to dozens of foster homes. But the most disturbing part of her story was the shocking way she was treated in state-run shelters well into the 1970s.

Between the ages of five and thirteen, Regina Louise made a friend named Jeanne Kerr, who served as one of her caretakers for the children at the state institution. Eventually, Miss Kerr petitioned to adopt Regina Louise as her daughter. The devastating denial of the petition by the judge was based on the recommendation of the head of the shelter to continue to warehouse the teenager in a juvenile detention center in California.

Instead of attending high school and living in a good home with Miss Kerr, Regina Louise was placed under the care of a nearly diabolical psychiatrist and nursing staff that led the child to make an attempt on her life. One of the most heartbreaking moments of the film is when Regina Louise finally receives the bundle of letters written to her by Miss Kerr, which were hidden away from her during her stay at the facility.

Through her own tenacity, Regina Louise rallied and finally was released from the institution, graduated from college, and eventually wrote the book that was the catalyst for her reunion with Miss Kerr.

In the Richmond detention center, young Regina Louise had been encouraged to earn a "gold star" for good behavior. By dint of her resiliency and through the love given to her by Miss Kerr, both of these women merit gold stars. The desire that burned inside Regina Louise was "to be somebody's someone." The film dramatizes the shining moment when in 2003 and in the same Contra Costa County courthouse where her petition was denied twenty-three years earlier, Jeanne Kerr became the mother of Regina Louise. At that moment, both characters were officially "somebody's someone."

That this is based on a true story blows my mind. It follows Regina Loise as a young African American girl who navigates over 30 foster homes. Unbelievable what this child went through, unable to be adopted by her counselor Miss Kerr because she's white, Regina instead ends up in a loony and fed drugs, along with all the other white kids to keep them complacent.

You get a hate on for the director of the orphanage who fights to keep Miss Kerr and Regina apart based on race. Eventually Regina ages out of any kind of care and is just put out on the street with nothing. The two never forget or give up on each other being a family.

I'm assuming this was a made for TV movie, it felt that way. A balanced, gripping story though, decent enough acting, Ginnerfer Goodwin is her usual bubbly self. My only criticism would be the adult/older teen they choose to play Regina as a child/10 year old. It was hard to take her seriously, maybe a child actor would have been a better choice then trying to ignore the womanly figure on a little girl.

I liked the ending, seeing the real people very moving that even after all that time they still want to be mother/daughter.

If you're fed up with standard Lifety or Hallmark nonsense then you may like this.

Where's Tom Brock?

Could they not find a black actor tomplay the lead. The actor here is mixed race. Kind of misses the point of the film.