SherryBaby

(7/10)

**After the golden globe nomination and oscar buzz I finally got my hands on this hard to find movie.**



What a downer. Sometimes though, you need to see movies like these to remind yourself how lucky you are in life. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a career defining performance in this little seen movie. She plays Sherry, a woman plagued with a past full of drug abuse and family problems. After getting out of jail she attempts to reunite with her 5-yr old daughter. The journey is not an easy one and I'm sure many people may not have made it all the way through this film. The power of this story causes one to feel incredibly sad and even more so because we know that given the circumstances, Sherry most likely can't handle taking care of a young child. As a viewer, I kept pining for a breakdown monologue or something quite cliche from Sherry, I needed something else to push me over the line and really get drawn into the story but somehow its what Sherry doesn't say that makes the most impact. Little nuances give us all the clues we need to realize that she has never been given the chance to live a normal life. The supporting cast does a decent job but theres no room to stand out when Gyllenhaal eats up every scene shes in and a vast amount of nudity doesn't hurt either though her body is beautiful we are distracted by the pain shes going through and its hard to see her in the desparity of these sexual situations. Flaws aside, I'd certainly recommend this movie if only because its a film where the movie IS the performance. This is the real, gritty deal though...because we won't be getting the ending we want but the one that's bound to happen.