Million Dollar Babies (1994)

The true story about the Dionne quintuplets. The girls were born in Canada in the 1930's to a poor rural couple. Their birth was shocking. During that time, there was no such thing as fertility drugs, so for a couple to have five kids at one time was very unusual indeed. Along comes the country doctor, Allan Roy Dafoe (Beau Bridges), who decides that the girls have to be taken away from their parents for safekeeping and observation. Instead of being nutured and cared for, the girls are paraded around like a side show.

This made-for-TV movie highlights the helplessness of the girls' parents in that situation, the isolation of the girls even within their own family, and Dr. Dafoe's greediness masked as concern for the kids. Bridges is good as the doctor who wants to be seen as a father figure to the quintuplets, but never can fill the shoes of their real parents. The scenes where the girls are being exploited are particularly heartbreaking.