Sherrybaby

Some films stand on the shoulders of the lead actor. In this case, it's the lead actress. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a fantastic actress whom I personally admire, partly because she isn’t just another one of those American beauties, but simply a beautiful woman. In Sherrybaby, she showcases her strengths in all their glory, both her acting and physical attributes. Her fellow actors don't even come close; the attention is focused on her, and she does everything to handle that attention. She succeeds; her role is fairly well-written. However, this is kind of the only role. There are motifs that are hinted at, all just to show how someone can hit rock bottom and what helps them along the way. There are an incredible number of influences, and Sherry has encountered many of them. Drugs, friends who abandon you, a father who likes to touch when no one is around, and finally, herself, who believes she is the center of the universe, thinking that everything should happen in her favor. It doesn’t, and she struggles to cope with that, especially with the fact that she isn’t raising her daughter, who no longer even calls her “Mom,” but “Sherry.” Her parents are now Sherry's brother and his wife. They try to bond with her daughter, but it’s complicated. It’s hard to root for her character, but Maggie has something within her that doesn’t completely turn you away. Just when you start to connect with her a little, the film suddenly ends. The short runtime is nice, but it concludes at the most interesting point. It's a shame; a few extra minutes would have done it justice. (03/03/2013)

It wouldn't have been a bad social drama if only the story had a point. I did once give it three stars, but on reflection, I think I was influenced by how Maggie Gyllenhaal showcased almost all of her talents. It’s true that her performance was one of the few positives of this film for me even today, but after a rewatch, not even full-frontal nudity would make it worth three stars. I did have one major issue with the film. It was made according to the same or very similar muster as many films before it. The protagonist went to jail for stealing to get drug money, but it wasn't really her fault because her daddy loved her too much and drugs were the only reasonable way out. While I'm no psychologist or psychiatrist, and I'm willing to admit that bad childhood experiences can be traumatizing, I also think it depends mostly on how you approach them. Making excuses for a bastard who murders people for his own gratification and feeds the leftovers to pigs just because he had a difficult childhood is misguided, to say the least. It's as stupid as considering alcohol and drugs as a mitigating factor in crime. In short, the filmmakers obviously wanted me to sympathize with Sherry, but as the plot progressed, I found her increasingly unlikeable, and I couldn’t care less about what was going to happen to her. The creators of Maid (series) (2021) went about it differently, and I think that they found a better way. / Lesson learned: Self-pity is worse than pity. (20/08/2022)

A film where Danny Trejo plays the good guy simply can’t be good. (10/07/2006)