Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Format: NTSC
Label: IFC Films
Manufacturer: IFC Films
Publisher: IFC Films
Sales Rank: 176548
Studio: IFC Films
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
A disturbing film about a recovering drug addict trying to regain control of her life, Sherrybaby succinctly depicts what can happen when want and desire aren't offset by control. In this bleak indie film, Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stranger Than Fiction, Secretary) has just been released from a three-year stint in prison. Dressed in her inappropriate uniform of a halter top and oh-so-high platform heels, she goes to brother's house to see her 5-year-old daughter, Lexie (Ryan Simpkins). Sherry is determined to be a mother to her child, but without a home, job, or any other form of stability, she grows frustrated and jealous of her brother and sister-in-law's roles in Lexie's life. Tall and willowy, Gyllenhaal brings a sad desperation and simmering sexuality to the role. Sherry's middle-class childhood was a blur of sex and drugs, and she seems incapable of breaking out of that destructive trap. While the script by first-time feature film director Laurie Collyer isn't wholly original, the picture moves at a good pace, giving insight as to why Sherry's resigned to using sex to get what she wants. While the family secret doesn't come as a complete surprise, it is somewhat perplexing that no one addresses it. Ultimately, it's Gyllenhaal who makes you care about a character that most people would've given up on. --Jae-Ha Kim
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Excellent and understated movie with a powerful message
This was a fascinating movie, with a first-rate performance by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal as an ex-con on parole, a woman trying to pick up the pieces of her life, including a daughter who has been raised in her absence by her brother and sister-in-law.
Sherry returns to the free world after spending years in prison, and she acts as if she's only been gone for a week. The core of the movie centers on her troubled relationship with her five-year-old daughter. I think there are a lot of women who will find something they can understand and relate to in this character, even though most of us have never lived this kind of a life.
Rating: - "Tell me you love me..."
Sherrybaby starring the extraordinary Maggie Gyllenhaal is difficult to watch but it made a lasting impression on me. Gyllenhaal's fearless and childlike performance is what makes this film worth seeing, she plays Sherry who has been released from prison and is trying to rebuild her relationship with her young daughter. Her daughter is living with her brother Bobby and his wife and Sherry wants to do right for her daughter but obstacles and old habits creep back up again. This film isn't perfect and the ending isn't cut and dry but Sherrybaby doesn't sugarcoat or preach, it's raw and seething.
Rating: - Gyllenhaal is astounding
Sherrybaby, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, is a good film, but prepare to be rather depressed for a bit after seeing it. When we first meet Sherry Swanson (Gyllenhaal), she has recently been released from jail, where she served time for a drug-related robbery. Once she's released, she contacts her brother, Bobby, who has been keeping her child (Alexis) for her while she's been in the clink. The movie then follows Sherry as she tries to stay clean and put her life back together post-prison.
Gyllenhaal is AMAZING in this film. Really amazing. (I am a fan since The Secretary, but this cements it.) If anyone has any doubts as to whether she can act, this should answer them. The storyline is a downer, though, as nothing seems to go right for Sherry. The tension between her and her brother over the fate of the child, the vestiges of an abusive relationship with her father, her struggles with addiction, her desperate need to be loved - it all adds up to rather morose entertainment.
But it is charged with meaning and blessed with good performances, making it worth seeing in my book. FYI - there is LOTS of language and nudity.
Rating:  - Maggie Gyllenhaal's acting is a gem, the film is not...
After seeing this movie uncut on cable, while I am a big fan of Maggie, and while her performance is second to none, overall, this is one of her films I'd rather not see a second time, so I couldn't honestly advise anyone to buy this DVD without checking it out first. It's a film I'm glad I saw at least once since I am a Maggie fan, but it is really a totally depressing experience on a number of levels throughout, the script needed major rewrites, especially as to believability issues, the ending is all wrong and contradicts the whole movie, and there really was no call to more or less exploit Maggie's beauty here in needlessly graphic sexual encounters and nudity, in way too many such scenes. She agreed to such to make the film, I suppose, so who am I to judge? Still, her acting talents are enough to do without the "soft-porn" and those several segments only detract from the viewer's finding of some empathy and understanding of her character.
The movie, one of many Gyllenhaal has been in these days, is compelling enough to sway one from fast forwarding, but aside from the excessive nudity/sex, there are just too many negatives here for me to imagine anyone actually wanting to repeatedly watch this, let alone buy the DVD which has few extras and seems not to have even put in closed-captions, which is unacceptable in these days.
Gyllenhaal's character is interesting, but it's never really background, explained enough with her story starting somewhere in the middle and ... Read More
Rating: - Gyllenhaal, Trejo and the rest drive this raw story
A stellar performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal and a pretty great one from Danny Trejo, with a rawness that affects the struggles of a young junkie-ex-con-mother attempting to make something good of her life.
Without going into details SherryBaby worked for me because I found myself viscerally reacting to each character and debating and discussing with my girlfriend the implications of the character's behaviors. That stands as a mark of an affecting and effective story.
A remarkable performance from Gyllenhaal, and the best thing I've seen Trejo do ever, plus terrific acting from the supporting actors.
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