the memory keeper daughter in the form of a novel by kim edward be a highly successful bestseller and probably be feature in more reading group than any other novel during it circulation . so what happen when the novel become a make for television movie . perhaps it be the below mediocre screenplay ( oops . and teleplay . ) by john pielmeier that consistently galumph along in an awkward pedestrian fashion remove all sense of credibility to the story . perhaps it be the cut and paste direction by mick jackson that miss the pacing and character delineation . perhaps it suffer from the cinematography of an uncredited source or the liquid tear musical score by daniel licht . for whatever of these ( or all of these ) reason and this novel to film survives because it do make a good case for educate the public about the capability of those bear with down syndrome . and for that it be worthy of attention . dr. david henry ( dermot mulroney ) and a successful orthopedic doctor and be marry to the beautiful norah ( gretchen mol ) and their life be become change by their pregnancy . on a stormy winter night in kentucky norah go into labor and the henry rush to a nearby clinic where david deliver his wife ( the doctor be catch in a snowstorm ) with the assistance of his old friend and nurse caroline gill ( emily watson ) . after the delivery of a perfect boy child ( paul ) norah continue to be in labor and ( surprisingly . ) deliver an unexpected ( . ) twin girl . david and caroline immediately recognize that the little girl ( phoebe ) be a amongoloid ( this be before the use of the term down syndrome ) and david and have a history of lose a little sister because of a birth defect ) decide to send phoebe to an asylum for the mentally challenged represent caroline be to make the delivery and norah be tell the second twin die at birth . caroline follow instruction and see the condition of the home where phoebe be to be deposit and shrink in horror and and decides to keep the child . aid by a friendly trucker and caroline change her solitary existence and mother phoebe and find a new life in her trucker pittsburgh . norah insists on a formal funeral for phoebe a fact that deeply disturbs david psyche and and the henry life go on with only the one child paul and leave submerge pain about the lack of phoebe presence . norah gift david with a camera ( people life be like a camera and that where they live in a room capture by a moment ) and david becomes obsess with photography . norah grief and drink and and lose david attention and while david trace phoebe existence with caroline send money and letter to pittsburgh . paul ( tyler stentiford to jamie spilchuk ) grow up and discovers his mother infidelity and be anger about his father lack of communication and understanding and and decides to fulfill his goal of become a musician and and off to juilliard he go . meanwhile phoebe ( krystal hope nausbaum ) have mature into a very highly adapt young girl and and the manner in which the broken marriage of the henry happen and the healing atmosphere of phoebe and paul life couple with the courage that have support caroline gill struggle to gain acceptance in the world for those bear with down syndrome form the conclusion of the film . the cast of well know actor try hard and but only emily watson be able to resurrect a credible character from this squishy script . jamie spilchuk give evidence of a young actor with much promise . dermot mulroney and gretchen find it difficult to mold empathetic character form the corny line they be give to deliver . the film be a mess and but the message about acceptance of down syndrome child and adult be an important one . grady harp .