I’ll be honest, I wanted to like this movie a lot more than I did.

I felt like by and large the emotions that the filmmakers wanted to get across didn’t come through for me. There was too much about the story that simply seemed improbable and I wasn’t able to immerse myself in the story because of this.

Ultimately I also think the story would have had more impact of it were simpler. Did the murder plot even need to exist? What was the point of the gangster characters? I would have enjoyed it much more if it stuck to the main plot: men involved in baby trafficking and a desperate mother trying to find a good home for her child. Between the emotional weight of a woman trying to get by in a world that has always cut her down, the legal ramifications of the baby selling scheme, and the moral dilemma of the two male leads, there’s enough conflict to carry the movie without the extra melodrama. That would have allowed the audience to connect more with the characters rather than being pulled in several directions by unnecessary fluff.

With any film or drama that tackles a major social issue and a stigmatized group of people, I also hope that the issue will really feel fleshed out - like time is devoted to sharing many perspectives of the different characters, their backstories, and how their lives have influenced their feelings and beliefs. We got a little bit of that in this movie, but it felt somewhat superficial to me. I got tired of characters saying things to the effect of, “what kind of woman would throw her baby away?” In reality, there are MANY reasons why struggling mothers will abandon their babies, but we barely even brushed the surface of the issue in this narrative. More time could have and should have been devoted to exploring the central issue at the heart of the film instead of just judgmentally asking “why” a million times while providing few answers or explanations.

I was also troubled by some of the simplistic caricatures of people in the film. Like the cold female cop who becomes warmer at the very end because she’s suddenly tasked with taking care of a baby. That felt very strange and forced to me (not to mention regressive in terms of the view it seems to present on childless women). Overall, the ending was just too “clean” and unlikely.

Now, overall I thought the acting was great. The cast did a great job with some unfortunately weak material. But in the end I was just left wanting more emotional depth and fewer superfluous plot points.