Review of Sherrybaby (2006) by Robert H — 20 Jul 2008

Maggie Gyllenhaal adds another difficult character to her everincreasing portfolio of troubled / misunderstood / immoral / self-destructive women. This time, she plays a mother just released on parole after a few years in prison, desperately trying to reconnect / build a life, and regain a relationship with her daughter. This film is not by any means comfortable. In fact, various scenes are designed to create discomfort in the audience. Laying on the grittyness, the realism, the drama and the struggle, the film never for a moment stops being serious, stern, and a bit full of itself. It is also not very entertaining. As dramatic peace of lifelike fiction, it convinces. As a rewarding way to spend a few hours of entertainment, it fails. (There are movies which succeed despite being difficult to watch, eg Monster, The Lives of Others, etc.).

In the end, films about addiction, addicts, people released from prison, people on the fringes of society, etc. tend to be movies about good intentions versus human weakness. And Sherrybaby is very much the same. The problem is, as much as we can emphasise with weak people, and internal struggle, we are condition to dislike and despise weakness. And so watching a film like this is not only difficult, it is also ultimately unrewarding. In many ways, this feels like a Sean Penn movie, and I could easily see him in Gyllenhaal's role. Watch this if you like the Assassination of Richard Nixon, or 21 Grams, etc.

Did the film make me think? Yes, it did. Was it worth watching? No.