REVIEW
It isn’t often that truly great female roles come along, especially in these times when about the best a woman can hope for is a script that plants her as the heavy against her masculine co-star’s antics. But, in her first feature film, Writer/Director Laurie Collyer, who produced the Sundance favorite documentary Nuyorican Dreams, gives the transcendent Maggie Gyllenhaal something to sink her teeth into, and the savory result is one of the best performances of the year so far.

Inspired by the life of one of Collyer’s school friends, Sherrybaby is the story of a Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a heroin addict who has just been released after serving three years in prison. Now she must deal with a rigid parole officer, played edgily by Giancarlo Esposito, a nagging drug habit, roommates in a decrepit halfway house and men who are all too eager to take advantage of her ragged vulnerabilities. But foremost, Sherry must rebuild a relationship with her now five-year-old daughter (Ryan Simpkins), whom she left in the care of her good old boy brother (Brad William Henke) and his protective wife (Bridget Barkin).

Nothing in the plastic garbage bag Sherry lugs around as a suitcase fits quite right – her pants are too tight, her skirts too short, her necklines too low. If her clothes don’t fit, neither does her new life. Her cravings for drugs are too intense, her relationships with men too degrading, and her intense longing to be a good mother too unfulfilling.

Rather than spiraling down to the depths of depression and death, as many films of this genre are inclined to do, Collyer and Gyllenhaal give Sherry a glimpse of redemption, a spark of hope. When it’s finally revealed why Sherry can barely live her life by treading water in the gutter, there is wonder and awe at how she’s made it as far as she has. There is a tender respect for a woman who knows how to defend herself, how to use what she has to get what she wants, and how to ultimately learn from her heartbreakingly painful mistakes.

But Gyllenhaal is not the only female in the film to give an achingly real performance. Little Ryan Simpkins who couldn’t have been much older than five when the film was made, is poignant and thoroughly convincing as a young child easily distracted by dolls and kisses, blissfully unaware of the power struggle going on between her birth mother and the woman who has been caring for her for most of her cognizant life. Her performance and tears are so genuine that it’s hard to discern whether she is consciously acting, or honestly reacting to Gyllenhaal’s stellar performance.

Gyllenhaal is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood these days. She’ll be appearing in five films that could be in theaters simultaneously: Sherrybaby; Trust the Man with Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup and David Duchovny; the animated Monster House as the voice of Zee the babysitter; Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah and Emma Thompson; and Oliver Stone’s Worl Trade Center, with Nicholas Cage and Maria Bello. Gyllenhaal stands a good chance of garnering award nominations for at least the former and the latter.

Rather than being overwhelmed by her omni-presence on screen, viewers could well become addicted to Gyllenhaal. Sherrybaby whets the appetite for more.