Sherrybaby

Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a recovering addict after serving prison time. She is placed in a halfway house and desperate to reconnect with her daughter who is living with her brother's family. She is perfectly willing to exchange sex for favors. She befriends Dean Walker (Danny Trejo) from the recovery meeting who recognizes her as a stripper. There is hostilities at the halfway house and she stays at her brother's home. It doesn't go well and she starts using again. Parole Officer Hernandez (Giancarlo Esposito) threatens her with prison time if she doesn't go back to treatment.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is great but Sherry is not terribly likable. She's a self-destructive addict who is a danger to her daughter. It's not until the bitter end that her self-obsessed destruction clears up. It would be better for her to build some more sympathy early on. It is still a devastating performance.

I thought the movie featured a great screen play and was a strong vehicle for each of actors to develop their characters. The story may not be entirely original but I think that's a strength because it's the telling of the story through each of the characters that makes it an achievement. Seldom does a film have such strong protagonists and antagonists and allow viewers to really empathize with each.

I enjoyed seeing the raw tension between the characters who could relate to personally, as my family participated in the Foster Care system for many years growing up. I think some may want to see more of a definitive ending but for me, it's more about the journey and the struggles therein.

I would recommend this movie for those who want to see a seemingly familiar story told in a unique way.

Sherrybaby (2006)

An almost literal slice of life, and highly believable. Maggie Gyllenhaal is everything here, and she acts her heart out. Which is to say, she makes her part so convincing in the nuances and lack of glamor (utterly), she becomes the character, Sherry, a former junkie just released from jail. It's a story of her trying to find the dignity and frankly intelligence to cope and to reintegrate.

Around her is a fairly ordinary world, and she uses sex and a little pent up anger to wend her way between her parole officers, her sister-in-law, her halfway house roomies, and a new friend or two. Key to all this is Sherry's little girl, who she clearly loves. But she doesn't have a clue how to be a mother.

This must be a painfully common story, and the one drawback is the events float in their slice-of-life as if that's sufficient. It is convincing, but by halfway through it starts to become clear that there is, in fact, no "story" at all. It's just going to be the meandering of this young woman, barely dressed in every scene, never seeing herself for how other people see her, in one big heartbreak. It has an ending, a kind of denouement, but it's very slight.

So, this is easy to recommend: try the first ten minutes. If you like getting absorbed, and don't mind that getting absorbed is the only point, then go for it. Gyllenhaal is a wonder, and the cast around her is right on. Director Laurie Collyer is someone to watch. When she gets more cinematically narrative and transforming material, she might pull off a more lasting masterpiece. This is her first full-fledged film (after a well-regarded HBO movie), and it's very smartly made.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is one of America's finest actors and in SHERRY BABY she pulls out a performance that is gut wrenching, painful to watch, but is a character we are rooting for throughout the film. In the last frame you feel her heartache and the compelling need to want her to have a life that is better than the one she has led.

SHERRY BABY reminds me of Ryan Gosling's HALF NELSON in the struggle to overcome drugs and make something out of your life. Too bad that Sherry has to follow such a dark, long road before she can come into her own and move beyond her painful past. The one scene in the film with the father at the birthday party will stay with me forever, as now you can fully understand her anguish and pain.

Maggie Gyllenhaal should be remembered at Award Season as her Sherry is a character that stays with you for a long time, and is someone that makes you want to like, respect and help her secure a new life. Bravo, Sherry, for your bravery, and for having such a skilled actress as Maggie Gyllenhaal portray your life.

There is one reason and one reason alone to see 'Sherrybaby', and that is for Maggie Gyllenhaal tour-de-force performance. Gyllenhaal gives her best performance to date as Sherry, a heroin addict/thief on parole who struggles to stay clean and re-kindle a relationship with her estranged five-year-old daughter. Everything else in the movie is mediocre at best. The other actors are good, but none of them have roles with enough substance for special merits. 'Sherrybaby' is not an easy movie to watch, it's painfully realistic and I felt incredibly embarrassed by Gyllenhaal's Sherry through-out the entire film. It's also somewhat predictable. Long story short, 'Sherrybaby' would be nothing without Gyllenhaal's groundbreaking and tear-jerking performance. Grade: B