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SHERRYBABY Send This Review to a Friend
Maggie Gyllenhaal has staked her claim for 2006 best acting consideration with her moving, tour de force performance in “Sherrybaby.” We have already seen her extraordinary work in previous films, but this one is special because of the demands of the role requiring her to cover a range of feelings and desperate striving to pull the character’s life together. Gyllenhaal portrays Sherry Swanson, a woman who has been addicted to drugs, is newly released from prison after serving time for robbery, and hopes to become a mother again to her young daughter, cared for in her absence by her brother and his wife at their New Jersey home.
Laurie Collyer merits praise for her screenplay and direction that combine to give a realistic portrait of the immense problems facing a woman like Sherry. There is enough tension to provide drama, but it is the incisive depiction that drives the film, and Gyllenhaal’s performance is what assures that the film rings true.
Odds of succeeding are stacked against Sherry. She is impatient, has a temper that can flair destructively, must fight the impulse to go back to drugs and harbors unrealistic ideas as to her capability for motherhood despite her longing to keep and nurture her child, Alexis (Ryan Simpkins). Furthermore, she is up against the fact that her sister-in-law, Lynn (Bridget Barkan) has become very much attached to the girl, as has the girl to her. Sherry’s brother Bobby (Brad Henke) is supportive, but he is also devoted to his wife and caught in the middle. There is just so much leeway he can provide to his problem sibling.
The journey that Sherry goes through becomes emotionally harrowing, and Gyllanhaal makes us feel for the woman, with all her flaws, self-destructiveness and illusions as to what she can accomplish, given the state she is in and the obstacles in her path. The situation is a heartbreaker.
The film itself generates power for insight, by inference, into the plight that many women prisoners must face upon their release. But this one deals in the specifics of one such case, and towering over everything is Gyllanhall’s award-caliber acting coup. An IFC Films release.
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