Sherrybaby

2006

Action / Drama

23
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 57% · 67 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 57% · 25K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 12327 12.3K

new jersey ex-con heroin addict woman director mother daughter relationship

Plot summary

After serving time in prison, former drug addict Sherry Swanson returns home to reclaim her young daughter from family members who have been raising the child. Sherry's family, especially her sister-in-law, doubt Sherry's ability to be a good mother, and Sherry finds her resolve to stay clean slowly weakening.

Director

Laurie Collyer Photo
Laurie Collyer

Top cast

Giancarlo Esposito Photo
Giancarlo Esposito as Parole Officer Hernandez
Maggie Gyllenhaal Photo
Maggie Gyllenhaal as Sherry Swanson
Rio Hackford Photo
Rio Hackford as Andy Kelly
Ryan Simpkins Photo
Ryan Simpkins as Alexis Parks
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
753.85 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 36 min
Seeds 2
1.44 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 36 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by secondtake 7 / 10

Gyllenhaal is seductive in her post-heroin sleaze...a slice of life with the minimum of plot

Sherrybaby (2006)An almost literal slice of life, and highly believable. Maggie Gyllenhaal is everything here, and she acts her heart out. Which is to say, she makes her part so convincing in the nuances and lack of glamor (utterly), she becomes the character, Sherry, a former junkie just released from jail. It's a story of her trying to find the dignity and frankly intelligence to cope and to reintegrate. Around her is a fairly ordinary world, and she uses sex and a little pent up anger to wend her way between her parole officers, her sister-in-law, her halfway house roomies, and a new friend or two. Key to all this is Sherry's little girl, who she clearly loves. But she doesn't have a clue how to be a mother.This must be a painfully common story, and the one drawback is the events float in their slice-of-life as if that's sufficient. It is convincing, but by halfway through it starts to become clear that there is, in fact, no "story" at all. It's just going to be the meandering of this young woman, barely dressed in every scene, never seeing herself for how other people see her, in one big heartbreak. It has an ending, a kind of denouement, but it's very slight. So, this is easy to recommend: try the first ten minutes. If you like getting absorbed, and don't mind that getting absorbed is the only point, then go for it. Gyllenhaal is a wonder, and the cast around her is right on. Director Laurie Collyer is someone to watch. When she gets more cinematically narrative and transforming material, she might pull off a more lasting masterpiece. This is her first full-fledged film (after a well-regarded HBO movie), and it's very smartly made.
Reviewed by gradyharp 10 / 10

The Plight of the Addict

Laurie Collyer both wrote and directed this very fine little film that examines the world in which addicted people live, even after they have 'paid their debt to society' by being imprisoned. She does not play to the sympathy of the audience: she rather empathizes with one woman's plight in her struggle to gain control of a life she has never been able to successfully assemble.Sherry Swanson (a brilliant tour de force by Maggie Gyllenhaal) has been in prison for robbery, drug possession and heroin addiction for several years and as the film opens she is released to her hometown in New Jersey where she is assigned a parole officer (Giancarlo Esposito) and a 'safe haven' home. She longs to see her five-year-old daughter Alexis (Ryan Simpkins) whom she barely knows and who has been living with her brother Bobby (the excellent Brad William Henke) and his wife Lynette (Bridget Barkan). After encountering much prejudice and abuse heaped on ex-cons looking for work, Sherry manages to find a job working with kids and tries desperately to re-connect with Alexis but is rebuffed by Lynette and warned by Bobby that should she bring drugs in the house he will send her back to prison.Sherry stumbles through her out-of-prison existence, connecting with old friends at an AA meeting, having a fling with her old flame Dean (Danny Trejo), attending a birthday party for Alexis given at her parents home where her father (Sam Bottoms) comforts her in a sexually intrusive way, and struggling with her roommates until she moves out on her own. She aches from not belonging, from the fact that her life on the 'outside' is as much a prison as on the 'inside', and she returns to drugs. Given an ultimatum by her parole officer she finally thinks she can put her life back together, but a planned outing with daughter Alexis forces Sherry to face the fact that she is not capable of the skills of mothering and she is able finally to ask for help from her caring brother.Maggie Gyllenhaal is Sherry with every fiber of her being. It is a performance worthy of top honors. The beauty of the film is the fact that it does not opt for Hollywood happy endings: it merely stops with many questions unanswered - as is the case in life with people who suffer the agonies of addiction. It is beautifully acted and filmed and it deserves the attention of not only lovers of fine film, but also people who want to try to understand the horrors of drug addiction in a society unprepared to cope with it. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp
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