God Bless The Child unfortunately has no happy ending of a mother and daughter skipping hand-in-hand to a great big house, because it's realistic; there are millions of mothers and fathers around the world living on the streets with their children, fighting for scraps of food and a place to sleep. Every night and day is about survival, nowhere is ever safe and few people can be trusted, leading to most children being left in foster care because their parents love them but can't properly look after them.
Theresa is one such parent, a loving mom of her daughter Hillary but living on street corners and in homeless shelters across the city she lives in. She's not the stereotypical trailer-trash hobo or crazy cat lady pushing a cart full of shopping cans, she's just fallen on hard times the way most homeless people have. We quickly forget in the real world that the people in dirty clothes eating out of dumpsters are people like us, people who have families and hopes and dreams and fears, and that's part of the problem with the homeless situation; the stigma and judgement that makes society just look the other way.
When a very kind and caring man (played by Obba Babatundé)finds Theresa and her daughter a new place to live, they make friends with the family next-door, and Hillary hits it off right away with Althea Watkins' daughter; they become the best of friends but Althea feels terrible that her daughter (Tracy) may have mental disabilities and they can't afford to get her help. We see not only Theresa and Hillary's situation, but also the situation of the Watkins family, good, decent people living in a dangerous neighborhood. When a young boy is killed by his feuding parents one night, the neighborhood mourns his loss and Theresa loses her home... soon after her daughter gets sick, she finds herself coping with a decision that she might have no choice but to make.
God Bless The Child offers insight into life on the streets, and with the world population rising and more jobs leaving North America, this lifestyle is becoming a nightmarish reality for more and more people in Canada and the United States each year. This movie doesn't sugarcoat anything; in a world like Theresa's, there are rats and roaches in your home, perverts and druggies in the shelters, leaking roofs and broken glass, cops and thieves, fighting and killing and child protection services waiting to take away children like Hillary. Don't take this movie lightly because it's as close as you could get to the reality of living on the streets as a single parent with a young child.
Theresa is one such parent, a loving mom of her daughter Hillary but living on street corners and in homeless shelters across the city she lives in. She's not the stereotypical trailer-trash hobo or crazy cat lady pushing a cart full of shopping cans, she's just fallen on hard times the way most homeless people have. We quickly forget in the real world that the people in dirty clothes eating out of dumpsters are people like us, people who have families and hopes and dreams and fears, and that's part of the problem with the homeless situation; the stigma and judgement that makes society just look the other way.
When a very kind and caring man (played by Obba Babatundé)finds Theresa and her daughter a new place to live, they make friends with the family next-door, and Hillary hits it off right away with Althea Watkins' daughter; they become the best of friends but Althea feels terrible that her daughter (Tracy) may have mental disabilities and they can't afford to get her help. We see not only Theresa and Hillary's situation, but also the situation of the Watkins family, good, decent people living in a dangerous neighborhood. When a young boy is killed by his feuding parents one night, the neighborhood mourns his loss and Theresa loses her home... soon after her daughter gets sick, she finds herself coping with a decision that she might have no choice but to make.
God Bless The Child offers insight into life on the streets, and with the world population rising and more jobs leaving North America, this lifestyle is becoming a nightmarish reality for more and more people in Canada and the United States each year. This movie doesn't sugarcoat anything; in a world like Theresa's, there are rats and roaches in your home, perverts and druggies in the shelters, leaking roofs and broken glass, cops and thieves, fighting and killing and child protection services waiting to take away children like Hillary. Don't take this movie lightly because it's as close as you could get to the reality of living on the streets as a single parent with a young child.