Take Care of Maya Review: Take Care of Maya is a documentary film directed by Henry Roosevelt and produced by Caitlin Keating. The film focuses on the horrible pain and frustrations felt by the Kowalski family after they took their daughter Maya to the hospital, which resulted in doctors misdiagnosing her and placing her in state custody. What follows is the family’s struggle to get their daughter back and stick together through a tumultuous and painful time. However, this does not come with its own devastating consequences.
– Take Care of Maya Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Take Care of Maya is an extremely difficult documentary to watch, not only because Maya is taken into state custody later on but also because Maya’s overall suffering from a very confusing disease in the beginning, is distressing to viewers. The movie takes a no-nonsense approach to talk about the horrifying reality for a lot of families and does not shy away from bringing forth the hard-hitting truth right from the mouth of those who were in the middle of an ordeal that ended in tragedy and changed the trajectory of a family forever.
The documentary is thrilling from the minute it starts off because the incident is just so bizarre and unbelievable that you will be left staring at the screen, wondering how this could even happen. It’s definitely an unfair situation and makes you wonder about the legality of it all – who is controlling those to whom we entrust our loved ones? Of course, one has to suspect the child abuse cases that are prevalent around the world and wonder whether law enforcement was just being cautious. In spite of these nagging thoughts, however, you can’t help but be presented with the facts and think otherwise.
The biggest question that Take Care of Maya asks is why this even happened. We never really get an answer to that troubling question. The documentary features Maya and her family talking about the entire incident from their points of view and also features archival footage and recordings of Beata’s struggle to see her daughter free and at home once again. And nowhere ever throughout its entire runtime do we ever understand why this specific family was targeted in the first place, considering they were following a doctor’s suggestions in the first place!
It’s an intense and heartbreaking ride that will definitely hit you hard. At times, I had to pause because just the thought of families getting targeted for no apparent reason is absolutely unfair, and the extreme abuse of power might just leave you a bit scared and traumatised. The documentary does a great job getting into medical child abuse and the targeted incidents happening at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital from a very particular incident and opening it up to include many others. The investigative journalism segway is done really well and turns the mood of the show from heartbreak to anger super quick.
I am interested, however, to understand how the documentary got its hands on the text messages apparently exchanged between doctors, nurses and Sally Smith. The texts seem personal and somehow, as a viewer, seem like difficult things to find, especially after so many years. On top of that, I wonder why doctors and nurses would be having these incriminating conversations so openly, considering the court case and everything surrounding the incident. But, then again, it wouldn’t be the first time human beings would surprise us greatly.
Take Care of Maya Review: Final Thoughts
The documentary has done a tremendous job of bringing forward a horrendous atrocity that will leave you heartbroken and hopeless in the end. It will make you wary of the people and institutions to whom you entrust your children and loved ones and whether or not they will be wrongfully held against their will. The manipulation and negligence are baffling to witness, and it makes Take Care of Maya a hard-hitting medical documentary.
Take Care of Maya is streaming on Netflix.
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take care of maya is a fantastic documentary. my thing is how they take a child away from a loving family when GABRIEL FERNANDEZ SHOULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM HIS PARENTS AND NOW HE ISNT HERE ANYMORE. DEP OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES ALWAYS RIP APART THE WRONG FAMILIES. PAY SOME ATTENTION AND FIX THE DAMN SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!
System is broke and there is no fixing it