April's 14th birthday starts as a disappointment. Her old-fashioned foster-mother didn't get her a cellphone, a necessity for any teenager. Upset, April skips school, and goes look at her former homes, of which there has been many. She never knew her parents – she was discovered from a dustbin of a pizzeria as a newborn. The flashbacks to her past form most of the movie.

Dakota Blue is as good as her excellent performance in The Golden Compass promises. She's a great fit as April, a strong and intelligent teenager, who is now facing the complex question of her identity. Thankfully the movie takes place in England, so that she can freely use her native accent.

Production values are much worse than the actors deserve. Picture quality is poor, and often the visual style is so rough you get a feeling you're watching an unpolished documentary. Some cuts are awkward, and it's hard to follow transitions from current time to past. The character of April is also perhaps too wholesome. For someone who has gone through numerous foster homes, you'd expect her to be much more edgy and scarred than the generally well-mannered and attractive teenager that she is.

These problems didn't prevent me from enjoying the movie. The approach to the theme of foster-parenting and search of one's real parents is fresh enough. Actors make the characters come alive, and the emotional ending had me drying my eyes. It's hard to understand, though, why a lovely girl like her would be discarded by one foster-home after another.

Alex plays April in the age of 8. She does a good job, but doesn't reach the excellence of the older actors. The DVD has an extra, which has some five minutes of her talking. Worth viewing.