Sherry Baby
After spending three years in prison Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal) returns to the outside world and decides to head back home to New Jersey. She moves into a halfway house and does her best to find work, but her main concern is trying to reconnect with her daughter Alexis (Ryan Simpkins). While Sherry was locked up her daughter has been raised by her brother Bobby (Brad William Henke) and his wife Lynnette (Bridgette Barkan). Now that she’s back, Lynnette is wary of Sherry and her relationship with Alexis and is hesitant to give up custody. In order to get her daughter back, Sherry has to get her life straight, but that’s far easier said than done.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is blatantly the best thing about this film and you can pretty much tell everyone knows it. It’s all but a showcase for her. Sherry is this confused woman who wants to better herself, but doesn’t really have a chance due to the fact that she only knows one way to live and she’s so fundamentally screwed up that there’s not a big chance of her changing. It’s probably the best work of Gyllenhaal’s career so far and with World Trade Center, Stranger than Fiction and this in a row she had a year to be proud of. It’s also nice to see Danny Trejo show up in a supporting role that actually allows him to be a little more than “that guy”. He’s sort of the male version of Sherry, but a little more balanced and you get the impression that he just goes to AA meetings for the chicks.
There are some great scenes that unfold like a train wreck. When Sherry’s father comes to visit she regresses to the point that she competes with her own daughter for his affection. She jumps up and down on the couch like a child in order to get his attention. Her standing up to sing “Eternal Flame “at the dining room table is a horror show. It’s bad enough when you have to politely sit through some little kid singing but a grown woman doing it is close to unbearable.
Unfortunately, this sort of behavior leads in to one of my main problems with this film. It’s obvious that Sherry has suffered some sort of sexual abuse in her life. Her general attitude towards men and her constant seeking of her father’s attention all but beat us about the head with it. For that reason we don’t really need to see it played out. It isn’t so much that it hits a level of creepy that I prefer not to go to, but it’s already so obvious that you don’t have to assume the audience is stupid.
Let’s face it this whole movie is some fairly well worn indie territory. If you’re a fan of independent film you’re probably not going to see anything here you haven’t seen before. I hate to say that since Gyllenhaal does such a good job, but there really isn’t a whole lot here. One dynamic performance can elevate a film to greatness, but it’s hard to do that when the character is one we’ve seen before.
The Grade
- Story: C+
- Acting: B+
- Visuals: B-
- Originality: C
- Enjoyability: B-
- Overall: C+
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