The Christmas Bunny

Movie Review of The Christmas Bunny

It is the story of Julia, a young girl embedded in foster care system. She has had multiple placements in a short period of time and at the movie opens with her being taken to yet another placement.

I wasn’t sure how this movie was going to turn out, I am wary of ‘adoption’ movies because many of them are unrealistic with the adopted child having characteristics of thankfulness, kindness and no behavioral problems. That is not reality.

In the movie, Julia does not speak nor is she willing to connect or interact with the foster family. Instead, she watches “The Veleveteen Rabbit” video over and over.

“Many of the children who hurt were born to mothers addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. These children can be viewed as life’s earliest abuse victims, because prenatal maltreatment may have prevented some of their physiological systems from developing properly. Oftentimes they are not primed to attach to a caregiver.” -Parenting the Hurt Child

Throughout the movie, bits of Julia’s past are introduced and fill in the missing pieces of her behavioral puzzle. Her reactions or lack thereof are based on the presuppositions she learned in her early years. Why should she attach to anyone when the person who brought her into the world abandoned her?

The bunny. He is her point of connection, her self-soothing behavior of watching the video translates into real life when her foster brother shoots and wounds a bunny. The family determines to help the wounded bunny heal, taking it to the vet and then to a neighbor who cares for abandoned bunnies. Julia learns how to care for the bunny from the Bunny lady.

I don’t want to give the ending away, but I was pleased that Julia was portrayed as a hurt child who does eventually connect because adoption is positive. There are trials along the way and the work is hard, but what worth having is not hard?
(There are other themes within the movie I haven’t covered, so I haven’t told the whole story!)
It is a Christmas movie worth watching!

Ania’s two cents:
What do they expect a child to do who has been in foster care? The person who is supposed to take care of her abandoned her and then they move her from foster home to foster home. Why should she attach to anyone? The first time she does something wrong she might get moved again. I understand why she didn’t talk, I didn’t talk right away. Julia needed time and parent like that (in the movie) that were patient and took the time.