Sherrybaby

If you need a break from the grandiloquent delights of summer, might we direct you towards this touching drama from the Sundance script laboratory. The keen instincts of Maggie Gyllenhaal have rarely been showcased to better effect than in Laurie Collyer’s fiercely honest directorial debut. It’s just as well that Ms. Gyllenhaal has the chops for it. She’s hardly off the screen for the duration of the film.
Her portrayal of Sherry Swanson, a recovering heroin addict who has just been released from prison after serving three years for robbery, enlivens a project that might otherwise be the wrong side of Eastenders miserabilism. Sherry, we soon learn, is struggling to stay clean and regain custody of her young daughter Alexis. Sadly, her brother and his wife have been good, decent parents to the child in mother’s extended absence. The breaking of hearts seems certain, regardless of the outcome.
Like most accounts of life after prison, the Real World seems to conspire against our heroine at every turn – sexual favours are required to secure employment, relatives and officials remain suspicious, and one shocking moment during a family reunion strongly suggests why Sherry might have needed numbing in the first place.
Though Maggie is super, she is greatly assisted by several beautifully judged supporting turns. Brad William Henke, playing Sherry’s horribly conflicted sibling, conveys both sympathy and fear in equal measure. Giancarlo Esposito puts in a similarly complex turn as her parole officer. One can somehow sense nobility and charity beneath his brutal cynicism. It’s certainly more multifaceted than anything one might find in No Beast So Fierce or most of this particular oeuvre.
Performance may be central in design, but it simply could not function without Ms. Collyer’s thoughtful direction and a script that contains just the right amount of melodramatic hooks. Mmmm. Soapy. More please.