Twilight of the Golds (1997)
Directed by Ross Kagan Marks
When a scientist does experimental genetic screening on his unborn child and determines his son will be a homosexual, an entire family struggles with how to react to this discovery.
At the celebration of their third wedding anniversary, Suzanne Gold Stein (Jennifer Beals) and her husband Rob Stein (Jon Tenney) announce their first pregnancy to the Gold family. Rob works for the Kagan Laboratories Genome Project, and when his boss, Dr. Adrian Lodge (John Schlesinger), pressures Rob to let the lab perform experimental genetic testing on the unborn baby, he eventually agrees. Suzanne’s parents Walter (Garry Marshall) and Phyllis (Faye Dunaway) Gold disapprove of Rob’s work in genetics because of their Jewish faith, but Suzanne undergoes the tests. When Rob brings the results home to share with his wife, his attitude is very somber despite the fact that the screening revealed they will have a son with no deformities, diseases, or disabilities. Then, Rob reveals their baby will likely be a homosexual; the geneticists identified the presence of genes that statistically indicate homosexuality 90% of the time. Although Suzanne’s brother David (Brendan Fraser) is gay, she and her husband are devastated. The couple cannot even speak the words; instead, they call the baby “it” and refer to the baby’s sexuality by saying it is “like David” as they discuss their hope that nurture can overcome nature. Suzanne even says she wishes “it” were deformed rather than homosexual. Suzanne’s mother is horrified when she learns that Suzanne is considering abortion because of the test results; she says that raising David was “not such a terrible thing.” However, Suzanne and David’s father disagrees. In his discussion with Suzanne, Walter describes the pain of David’s upbringing and subtly supports abortion. When Phyllis tells David the news—“there’s a problem with the baby”—he can’t help but ask his parents if they would have aborted him if they’d had the same knowledge before his birth. When neither his father nor mother can give him a straight answer to this question, David estranges himself from his parents. He does go to comfort Suzanne and in response to her plea for his support, he tells her that no one in history has had to make this decision and asks her how she could think to do such a thing to him. He tries to convince her that she is strong enough to raise a gay child and reminds her that her baby’s sexuality is related to all the other aspects of him, just as all the things she loves about him are inextricable from his own homosexuality. Confused and frightened, Suzanne confronts her husband regarding whether or not he wants to keep their baby; when he replies that he wants her to have an abortion so that they can just “wait for the next one,” she asks what will happen to their marriage if she decides to keep the child. When he replies, “I don’t know,” Suzanne decides to have an abortion. Soon after, however, she begins to have doubts and asks a gay co-worker out for drinks to ask him questions about his life. When her friend is assaulted because of his sexuality, Suzanne experiences complications from the stress and realizes she does not want to give up the baby. She leaves her husband, who has quit his job at Kagan Laboratories. The film ends with the Gold family reunited and a flashforward shows Suzanne’s child playing on the playground.
Twilight of the Golds raises a variety of difficult questions about the benefits of genetic advancement, pro-life versus pro-choice debates, and family. By the end of the film, Rob has quit his job at Kagan laboratories and, when asked, claims he wish he had never allowed the genetic screening of his child. Although life and acceptance triumph in the end, Marks’s film compels audiences to consider the implications of knowledge scientific innovation can provide.
Evaluation: This film is a compelling, thought-provoking, and well-executed portrayal of a family working through a choice no other family has ever had to face. An excellent film for classroom study and discussion, particularly concerning ethical responsibility and choice with regards to genetics.
– Lauren Wood Hoffer