Sherrybaby

This is another addict movie, the genre of which I have been watching much of late. Sherry (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a manipulative, angry, selfish woman trying to get her life in order. She exhibits a lot of bad qualities complete with bad habits, but she honestly wants to do better and be better. She just doesn't know how. And everytime she tries and fails is a wince-inducing moment. She tries often. The peformance is uncompromising and the writer/director has created a complicated character who is hard to root for. She has goals, specifically to become a mother to her daughter again, but in that respect I found it difficult to want her to get there because every attempt was maddening. Her brother roots for her, but even he has gotten used to the idea that his sister may never get right for good. And that is the feeling I as a viewer was left with. I wanted to see her pull through and win, but any movie that tries to portray that faces the risk of sentimentality. I've seen it before. Still, I want to believe every time that addicts will get better and stay better. Sherrybaby portrays the attempts in a realistic manner, with Sherry ultimately facing the idea that she can't make the jump from being the idea of mother to being an actual mother without help. And she offers honest humility before her brother before going into in-patient care. The ending avoids the over sentimentality it could have embraced in favor on a more authentic, satisfying feeling.

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