I think John Sayles is one of the most consistently interesting filmmakers around (Return of the Secaucus Seven, Matewan, The Brother From Another Planet, Eight Men Out, City Of Hope, Passion Fish, Secret of Roan Inish, Men With Guns, Lone Star, The Sunshine State). Casa de los Babys is yet another topical film that is rooted in reality, as 5 American women bide their time as they wait for news of their impending adoptions in an unnamed Central/South American country. The writing is excellent as the film looks at a variety of topics: the women and their specific stories, street children who are not valued like the babies that these women pine for, the power struggle between "the haves" (the Americans) and "have-nots" (the locals), the locals are presented as more than one-dimensional stereotypes with their own hopes, worries, desires and foibles, single motherhood, the grief of being unable to conceive naturally, among others. It is a tour de force of acting for the women in this project: Marcia Gay Harden is almost unrecognizable from the Miller’s Crossing mobster moll, as she portrays a dubious, straight talking shrew, Maggie Gyllendaal evokes a sort of meek resignation as she cowers to the demands of her husband, Daryl Hannah has seemingly stopped aging and gives a powerful performance as a fitness obsessed women who has a hidden burden of grief, and Lili Taylor is great as usual as a cynical in-your-face New Yorker, and the rest of the cast is impressive as well with Mary Steenburgen (The Sunshine State), Rita Moreno, and Susan Lynch (The Secret of Roan Inish).
Comments