“You know that he still waits for you?”

Jean Hansen (Judy Garland) begins working at an institute for developmentally challenged children with little experience in much that has anything to do with it, but rather seeking to help. She discovers that the steward of the institute, Dr. Matthew Clark (Burt Lancaster), has a loving and very stern approach to the treatment of his students and we follow as Jean comes in conflict with this stance throughout the film.

There was a time, and there still is – just not exactly like this, in cinema where it felt that there had to be these hard hitting topic driven films. It almost feels that the film is forcing itself to be edgy by discussing the topic of challenged children and how they’re treated for in a way that may help them become functioning individuals in the future. This film is emblematic of that kind of cinema. Sadly that’s one of the types of film that I loathe.

When critics take a film to task for being ‘on the nose’ and ‘ham fisted’ at times it can feel trite and easy to write it off as the film not working for that specific critic, because at the end of the day almost every film has that ‘money shot’ line where a character says out in the open what the film is trying to say for us to pick up on. However, in the case of A Child is Waiting, where we have the character of Jean who coddles the children seeking to treat them like normal children expecting that giving them love and adoration is all they need and when they go to class they’ll get the other half of the equation that eventually equals success, and the opposite of the spectrum who’s a pragmatist (Dr. Clark) who pushes the children to find which ones will end up being functional and a success and almost leaving the others behind to remain there due to a lack of resources and even (to some effect) caring you’re faced scene after scene with a fist of ham landing right in your lap.

As Garland’s lip quivers repeatedly begging for Reuben (Bruce Ritchey) to be given a chance and not treated so harshly while so frolics with him and his toys we’re left there trying to figure if we’re supposed to be manipulated into caring for Reuben or for these children in general. Giving the film a focal point such as the relationship of Jean and Reuben does help make this manipulation more obvious and at the same time effective, but showing your hand so clearly works to the detriment of that point.

4.0/10