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There are bound to be comparisons between Sherrybaby and Half Nelson. Both are indie feature film debuts from writer/directors; both chronicle the lives of unanchored, drug-addled youth; and both touch on the dysfunctions of contemporary families. While Sherrybaby never achieves the heights or depths of the more nuanced Half Nelson, it still emerges as a solid, compelling portrait of a young woman’s addiction and recovery from writer/director Laurie Collyer.

Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is released from prison after a three-year sentence for robbery and drug possession. Her first human encounter on the way to the halfway house is being jostled by an unapologetic man. Then she is aggressively challenged by one of the women in the crowded, bleak house. Sherry realizes that life on the outside won’t be the heaven she imagined. Freedom brings the immediate responsibility of reconnecting with four-year-old daughter Alexis (Ryan Simpkins), who has been raised by Sherry’s brother Bobby (Brad William Henke) and his wife Lynette (Bridget Barkan) in her absence. They are justifiably uneasy about allowing Sherry to crash the stable home they have created for Alexis. Bobby’s desire to support his sister and her renewed relationship with her daughter is often outweighed by his loyalty to his wife, who by now views Alexis as her own. To Collyer’s credit, Lynette isn’t written as a one-dimensional villain or shrewish wife. Despite her reservations about Sherry, she reaches out to her, offering to do hair and makeup for a job interview and expressing sisterly concern about what life was like for her in prison. The problem is that Sherry wants to jump headfirst into parenting Alexis and regaining custody without considering how the abrupt change will affect everyone involved.

Bleached blond and scantily clad in a variety of halter tops and tight skirts, Sherry’s is a portrait of arrested development. Now in her early 20s, she is a woman-child in her bearing an insouciant slouch and her self-absorbed, quick-tempered demeanor. Apart from the harsh encounters with her parole officer, she is only able to relate to the men in her life sexually. When Sherry meets the house director Andy (Rio Hackford), a ponytailed leech who looks her up and down while extolling the virtues of 12-step programs, she coyly responds that she prefers to find strength in the Bible instead. Soon after, they are having hurried sex in the basement of the house. In NA she quickly seduces “real, live Injun” Dean (Danny Trejo), who remembers her from her days as an underage stripper and genuinely wants to see Sherry stay clean – more because of his belief in the program than a profound emotional investment in her.

Gyllenhaal again proves that she tops the shortlist of young actresses that consistently deliver raw, powerful, intimate performances. Her commitment to the part saves Sherry from being a clichéd collection of pathologies. Through Gyllenhaal, Sherry projects an unexpected innocence and vulnerability precisely when she is engaging in the most unsympathetic behavior. She cynically uses her sexuality as a crude mode of exchange to secure favors, as with a job placement counselor initially hesitant to recommend her for a particular job. Yet she is able to experience real pleasure in her sexual encounter with Dean, reveling in her body with unaffected sensuality. Sherry selfishly demands attention from everyone around her – including Alexis, from whom she seeks the unconditional love denied to her by members of her family. At the same time one cannot doubt her profound humility and guilt when she first embraces her daughter and desperately asks for her forgiveness for not being there.

The film doesn’t offer any easy answers for Sherry and her family. Sherry’s former lives as a teenage addict and inmate were about putting her own needs and impulses front and center. Will she be able to change her life in order to better meet the needs of someone else – her little girl? Collyer gives us every reason to hope while promising that it won’t be easy.

© 2006 Robyn Citizen. All rights reserved.

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