Sherrybaby
Encyclopedia
Sherrybaby is a 2006 American drama film
written and directed by Laurie Collyer
. Screened at the Sundance Film Festival
on January 25, 2006, the film received a limited release
in the United States
on September 8, 2006.
) has been in prison for three years and is anxious to get back to her young daughter, Alexis (Ryan Simpkins
), who has been living with Sherry's brother Bobby (Brad William Henke
) and his wife, Lynnette (Bridget Barkan). The story opens with Sherry's arrival to her new home, a halfway house
for women on parole. She is a former heroin addict and finds re-entering the world outside of prison more difficult than anticipated. Sherry admits at an AA
meeting that although she has been clean for over two years, just four days out of prison she is strongly tempted to use. Once her home situation is established her greatest priority is to visit her daughter. Though Sherry is tearful and apologetic and Alexis is slightly shy on greeting, both become very happy on their first reuniting.
Sherry needs to work, but is unable to have the preschool job she wants because she has not finished rehabilitation while still on parole. She uses sex with the employment agent to get the job. Later, after getting into a fight with another woman at the halfway house
, she moves in with Bobby without telling her parole officer (Giancarlo Esposito
). Although Sherry wants to use the opportunity to become closer to Alexis, things are complicated by the fact that Lynnette thinks Sherry is an unfit mother. She insists that Alexis call Sherry by her first name instead of "mommy". While at their home Sherry's father (Sam Bottoms
) visits. Sherry competes with her own daughter for his attention and later during dinner at the table he serves Sherry her first alcohol since being sober. The family does not recognize that this is a problem; there are also hints that Sherry's father has sexually molested her in the past.
Because of the conflict between Sherry and Bobby's wife, she ends up moving out of their house and into a motel. She also continues to drink increasing amounts of alcohol. As the story progresses, Sherry tries to be a good mother to Alexis, but she is needy and overbearing, and her efforts are upsetting to her daughter. Bobby and Lynnette resist her trying to be a larger part of Alexis' life so quickly. Sherry ends up confiding in her father, but as she cries on his shoulder, he touches her inappropriately. Bobby watches unseen, but doesn't speak and leaves the room. Sherry then leaves, upset, and goes out to find and use heroin.
After this, she returns to an AA meeting where her Native American
friend Dean (Danny Trejo
), a fellow addict, notices that she has been using again and helps her. He takes her to his house, smudges
her with sage and draws her a bath. She borrows clothes from him so that she can return to her preschool job and hide her I.V. bruised arm. After work she goes back to her motel room and finds her parole officer waiting. She confesses that she is "dirty" and asks to be put in outpatient rehab. He tells her that she doesn't qualify to be an outpatient at this point; she must either go to inpatient rehab, or go back to prison. He gives her the weekend to say her goodbyes to her family and a time and place to report for rehab, and leaves.
Sherry meets up with Bobby and asks if she can have an opportunity to bond with Alexis. She implores him using guilt to let her take Alexis out for the day. He agrees and must even reassure Sherry he is on her side. Sherry comes to Bobby's house to pick up Alexis with a car borrowed from Dean, presumably to play miniature golf and with the agreement to return before evening. She does not let them know about her pending inpatient rehab. Alexis doesn't want to go, but stops crying once they are driving. She drives Alexis over the state line and they stop for lunch. As they are eating, Sherry asks Alexis if she's ever been to Florida
, and whether she would like to go. Alexis needs to use the bathroom. A woman in line at the bathroom begins berating her small son and Sherry takes the woman by the hair and curses at her for bullying her child. Alexis disappears and Sherry finds her hiding in a bathroom stall with wet pants. In the parking lot, Sherry is frustrated helping Alexis change her clothes.
They drive back to Bobby's house past dark; Bobby and his wife have been worried. Alexis (not troubled) runs inside to see Lynnette. Bobby walks out and hugs Sherry, and she asks him if he would help to raise her daughter because she cannot do it by herself. He tells Sherry that he has already been helping to raise her daughter, and she tells him that she realized that she had never asked. They embrace, and needing to return Dean's car Sherry drives off into the night.
praises the film as "emotionally arresting" and "authentic and moving", and describes Gyllenhaal as "such a miracle of an actress that she makes you respond to the innocence of Sherry's desperate, selfish destruction." The Christian Science Monitor also gave a positive review of the film, complimenting Collyer's "vivid eye for detail and the small, telling human moments that make a movie resonate with audiences".
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
written and directed by Laurie Collyer
Laurie Collyer
Laurie Collyer is an American film director. She grew up in Mountainside, New Jersey and attended Oberlin College. She is best known for writing and directing Sherrybaby, for which actress Maggie Gyllenhaal received a Golden Globe nomination. She also directed the film Nuyorican Dream in 1999...
. Screened at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
on January 25, 2006, the film received a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on September 8, 2006.
Plot
Sherry (Maggie GyllenhaalMaggie Gyllenhaal
Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...
) has been in prison for three years and is anxious to get back to her young daughter, Alexis (Ryan Simpkins
Ryan Simpkins
Ryan Elise Simpkins is an American actress. In the film Pride and Glory , she and her brother, actor Ty Simpkins, play the children of Colin Farrell. In Revolutionary Road she again starred alongside her real-life brother Ty.-Selected filmography:-External links:...
), who has been living with Sherry's brother Bobby (Brad William Henke
Brad William Henke
Brad William Henke is an American actor.-Biography:Henke was born in Columbus, Nebraska. He starred in October Road and in the movies Around June with Samaire Armstrong and Jon Gries, The Amateurs with Jeff Bridges and Tim Blake Nelson, In the Valley of Elah with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize...
) and his wife, Lynnette (Bridget Barkan). The story opens with Sherry's arrival to her new home, a halfway house
Halfway house
The purpose of a halfway house, also called a recovery house or sober house, is generally to allow people to begin the process of reintegration with society, while still providing monitoring and support; this is generally believed to reduce the risk of recidivism or relapse when compared to a...
for women on parole. She is a former heroin addict and finds re-entering the world outside of prison more difficult than anticipated. Sherry admits at an AA
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
meeting that although she has been clean for over two years, just four days out of prison she is strongly tempted to use. Once her home situation is established her greatest priority is to visit her daughter. Though Sherry is tearful and apologetic and Alexis is slightly shy on greeting, both become very happy on their first reuniting.
Sherry needs to work, but is unable to have the preschool job she wants because she has not finished rehabilitation while still on parole. She uses sex with the employment agent to get the job. Later, after getting into a fight with another woman at the halfway house
Halfway house
The purpose of a halfway house, also called a recovery house or sober house, is generally to allow people to begin the process of reintegration with society, while still providing monitoring and support; this is generally believed to reduce the risk of recidivism or relapse when compared to a...
, she moves in with Bobby without telling her parole officer (Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
). Although Sherry wants to use the opportunity to become closer to Alexis, things are complicated by the fact that Lynnette thinks Sherry is an unfit mother. She insists that Alexis call Sherry by her first name instead of "mommy". While at their home Sherry's father (Sam Bottoms
Sam Bottoms
Samuel John "Sam" Bottoms was an American actor and producer.-Personal life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the third son of James "Bud" Bottoms and Betty , both of whom survive him...
) visits. Sherry competes with her own daughter for his attention and later during dinner at the table he serves Sherry her first alcohol since being sober. The family does not recognize that this is a problem; there are also hints that Sherry's father has sexually molested her in the past.
Because of the conflict between Sherry and Bobby's wife, she ends up moving out of their house and into a motel. She also continues to drink increasing amounts of alcohol. As the story progresses, Sherry tries to be a good mother to Alexis, but she is needy and overbearing, and her efforts are upsetting to her daughter. Bobby and Lynnette resist her trying to be a larger part of Alexis' life so quickly. Sherry ends up confiding in her father, but as she cries on his shoulder, he touches her inappropriately. Bobby watches unseen, but doesn't speak and leaves the room. Sherry then leaves, upset, and goes out to find and use heroin.
After this, she returns to an AA meeting where her Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
friend Dean (Danny Trejo
Danny Trejo
Dan "Danny" Trejo is an American actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films, most notably in roles as an antagonist, or anti-hero.-Early life:...
), a fellow addict, notices that she has been using again and helps her. He takes her to his house, smudges
Smudge stick
A smudge stick is a bundle of dried herbs, most commonly white sage . Often other herbs or plants are added, and the leaves are usually bound with string in a small bundle and dried. Additional herbs and spices that are often used in contemporary practices include cilantro, cedar, lavender, and...
her with sage and draws her a bath. She borrows clothes from him so that she can return to her preschool job and hide her I.V. bruised arm. After work she goes back to her motel room and finds her parole officer waiting. She confesses that she is "dirty" and asks to be put in outpatient rehab. He tells her that she doesn't qualify to be an outpatient at this point; she must either go to inpatient rehab, or go back to prison. He gives her the weekend to say her goodbyes to her family and a time and place to report for rehab, and leaves.
Sherry meets up with Bobby and asks if she can have an opportunity to bond with Alexis. She implores him using guilt to let her take Alexis out for the day. He agrees and must even reassure Sherry he is on her side. Sherry comes to Bobby's house to pick up Alexis with a car borrowed from Dean, presumably to play miniature golf and with the agreement to return before evening. She does not let them know about her pending inpatient rehab. Alexis doesn't want to go, but stops crying once they are driving. She drives Alexis over the state line and they stop for lunch. As they are eating, Sherry asks Alexis if she's ever been to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and whether she would like to go. Alexis needs to use the bathroom. A woman in line at the bathroom begins berating her small son and Sherry takes the woman by the hair and curses at her for bullying her child. Alexis disappears and Sherry finds her hiding in a bathroom stall with wet pants. In the parking lot, Sherry is frustrated helping Alexis change her clothes.
They drive back to Bobby's house past dark; Bobby and his wife have been worried. Alexis (not troubled) runs inside to see Lynnette. Bobby walks out and hugs Sherry, and she asks him if he would help to raise her daughter because she cannot do it by herself. He tells Sherry that he has already been helping to raise her daughter, and she tells him that she realized that she had never asked. They embrace, and needing to return Dean's car Sherry drives off into the night.
Cast
- Maggie GyllenhaalMaggie GyllenhaalMargaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...
as Sherry Swanson - Brad William HenkeBrad William HenkeBrad William Henke is an American actor.-Biography:Henke was born in Columbus, Nebraska. He starred in October Road and in the movies Around June with Samaire Armstrong and Jon Gries, The Amateurs with Jeff Bridges and Tim Blake Nelson, In the Valley of Elah with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize...
as Bobby Swanson - Sam BottomsSam BottomsSamuel John "Sam" Bottoms was an American actor and producer.-Personal life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the third son of James "Bud" Bottoms and Betty , both of whom survive him...
as Bob Swanson, Sr. - Kate BurtonKate Burton (actress)-Personal life:Burton was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the daughter of producer Sybil Burton and actor Richard Burton . She was thus the stepdaughter of actress Elizabeth Taylor and of Sybil's second husband Jordan Christopher. In 1979, Burton earned a bachelor's degree in Russian studies and...
as Marcia Swanson - Giancarlo EspositoGiancarlo EspositoGiancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
as Parole Officer Hernandez - Danny TrejoDanny TrejoDan "Danny" Trejo is an American actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films, most notably in roles as an antagonist, or anti-hero.-Early life:...
as Dean Walker - Caroline Clay as Parole Officer Murphy
- Bridget Barkan as Lynette Swanson
- Ryan Simpkins as Alexis Parks
- Stephen Peabody as Mr. Monroe
Reception
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
praises the film as "emotionally arresting" and "authentic and moving", and describes Gyllenhaal as "such a miracle of an actress that she makes you respond to the innocence of Sherry's desperate, selfish destruction." The Christian Science Monitor also gave a positive review of the film, complimenting Collyer's "vivid eye for detail and the small, telling human moments that make a movie resonate with audiences".
Accolades
| Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Category | Name | Results |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Chicago Film Critics Association The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong... |
Best Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... |
Maggie Gyllenhaal | Nominated |
| Golden Globe Award Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign... |
Best Actress - Drama Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture - Drama was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951... |
Maggie Gyllenhaal | Nominated |
| Gotham Awards Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards is an annual ceremony of awards presented to the makers of independent films which takes place in New York City... |
Breakthrough Director | Laurie Collyer | Nominated |
| Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events.... |
Best Actress | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Won |
| Crystal Globe | Laurie Collyer | Won | |
| London Film Critics' Circle | Best Actress London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year in an annual award given by the London Film Critics Circle.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
Maggie Gyllenhaal | Nominated |
| Prism Award | Performance in a Feature Film | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Won |
| Satellite Awards Satellite Awards The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama... |
Best Actress Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama The Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama is one of the annual awards given by the International Press Academy.- Winners and nominees :The following listing is based on the web postings of the International Press Academy.- 1990s :... |
Maggie Gyllenhaal | Nominated |
| Sundance Film Festival Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new... |
Grand Jury Prize | Laurie Collyer | Nominated |