The title says it all - Sherry is a young woman who still in many ways acts like a child. She has had an unfortunate start to her life which culminated with her becoming a single mother saddled with a drug habit she could not support financially that inevitably led to her appearing in Court for petty theft. She received quite a long jail sentence and the film opens when she had served enough of this to be released on probation. We quickly appreciate that her problems largely resulted from immaturity which was mainly a consequence of her home upbringing rather than due to any basic character fault of her own. She was released with a very good prison record after making a real attempt to rehabilitate herself; with the one unwavering objective of getting re-united with her daughter Alexis, now living with her brother and his wife, as quickly as possible. But we also appreciate that she is far from mature (even though not quite a baby) and will have difficulty finding a successful way forward on her own in our complex modern society. It looks long odds that before long she will revert to using drugs again and will be back where she was when she first became entangled with the law. This film is a real tearjerker - Sherry is played as an immature character with whom one can sympathise; so when the film bluntly shows the problems such an individual faces, and we watch the many blows that life outside prison is inflicting on her, we have imminent expectations of seeing a final blow which will overwhelm her and lead to her return to prison with the prospect of no more than an unfulfilled lifetime of petty crime in front of her.
This expected ending might be a route for achieving an art-house film award, but the scriptwriter and director clearly recognised it would not be likely to to lead to box office success, particularly as the story is filmed in a totally non-judgmental style so that it screens almost like a documentary crying out for a final resolution. However Sherry's battle for acceptance and respect will clearly be a long one and any quick definitive ending which implied the end of Sherry's problems would be artistically unrealistic. Instead the film wisely ends at one significant staging point in her long struggle. (SPOILER AHEAD} Her brother, although anxious to give her his full help and support, is unable to do so effectively whilst she continues to believe all her problems result directly from the unjustified suspicions of her contemporaries. Eventually this dichotomy drives her back to heroin again, but she bravely pulls up short, recognising both that there were legitimate fears on the part of her so-called friends, and that she needs more help if she is to finally develop a lifestyle acceptable to those among whom she is living. The film ends with her going into a detox centre, but before doing so she returns to her brother to accept the offer of help she had been rejecting before . We know she will still have many battles ahead of her, but at this point she has won the first and greatest of them; and she now has a real chance to eventually become fully reintegrated into her community. We wish her well as the film ends at what would otherwise have been a very uncertain point. Although simple, in my experience such an ending is unusually realistic for films dealing with this type of subject matter.
Without the truly outstanding performance by Molly Gyllenhaal as Sherry this film would provide very flat viewing, like a rather sterile documentary intended to make us more sympathetic to those who have stumbled along the wayside, but not really involving our emotions. Molly has lifted it well above this level and most of the other performances (including that of the young actress who played her daughter) are also excellent. Some IMDb users have said that they do not care for her acting, but her award winning portrayal of Sherry has been acclaimed by so many critics and viewers that all I need add is the recommendation - If you have not already seen this film, find a copy of the DVD as soon as you can.
7 Stars
This expected ending might be a route for achieving an art-house film award, but the scriptwriter and director clearly recognised it would not be likely to to lead to box office success, particularly as the story is filmed in a totally non-judgmental style so that it screens almost like a documentary crying out for a final resolution. However Sherry's battle for acceptance and respect will clearly be a long one and any quick definitive ending which implied the end of Sherry's problems would be artistically unrealistic. Instead the film wisely ends at one significant staging point in her long struggle. (SPOILER AHEAD} Her brother, although anxious to give her his full help and support, is unable to do so effectively whilst she continues to believe all her problems result directly from the unjustified suspicions of her contemporaries. Eventually this dichotomy drives her back to heroin again, but she bravely pulls up short, recognising both that there were legitimate fears on the part of her so-called friends, and that she needs more help if she is to finally develop a lifestyle acceptable to those among whom she is living. The film ends with her going into a detox centre, but before doing so she returns to her brother to accept the offer of help she had been rejecting before . We know she will still have many battles ahead of her, but at this point she has won the first and greatest of them; and she now has a real chance to eventually become fully reintegrated into her community. We wish her well as the film ends at what would otherwise have been a very uncertain point. Although simple, in my experience such an ending is unusually realistic for films dealing with this type of subject matter.
Without the truly outstanding performance by Molly Gyllenhaal as Sherry this film would provide very flat viewing, like a rather sterile documentary intended to make us more sympathetic to those who have stumbled along the wayside, but not really involving our emotions. Molly has lifted it well above this level and most of the other performances (including that of the young actress who played her daughter) are also excellent. Some IMDb users have said that they do not care for her acting, but her award winning portrayal of Sherry has been acclaimed by so many critics and viewers that all I need add is the recommendation - If you have not already seen this film, find a copy of the DVD as soon as you can.
7 Stars