New York Times Review, December 02, 2005

by Dana Stevens

In 2002, Nicole Conn, a filmmaker, and her partner, Gwendolyn Baba, chose to have a surrogate mother carry their second child. Because of pre-existing (and undisclosed) health problems, the surrogate was found to have a life-threatening condition at 25 weeks of gestation, and the baby boy was delivered through a Caesarean section, 100 days early. Weighing in at almost exactly one pound and unable to breathe or eat on his own, Nicholas James Baba-Conn seemed doomed to a very short life; his chance for survival was calculated at close to zero. "Little Man" is an unusually honest film about the ambiguity of maternal love. "When does caring become cruelty?" Ms. Conn asks, and she and Ms. Baba often give opposing answers to that question as the strain of caring for the infant pushes their relationship to the breaking point. By the film's end, as a still-fragile Nicholas celebrates his second birthday at the beach with his family, it's hard not to see the story of his rocky start as an inspiration, rather than a cautionary tale.