Customer Reviews

Casa De Los Babys

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found this movie to be very touching and real. It isn't John Sayles best movie, but we've come to expect something totally stunning from him every time. It is however very much worth seeing. It gives a very gritty feeling of being in Mexico waiting to adopt a baby. The women who play the main characters do great acting. They play a cross section of very genuine personality types. No plot, just the drama of daily life in an emotionally volatile situation. Brings up all sides of the issue of adopting babies in foreign countries, including a very moving portrayal of the life of homeless street children.

Written and directed by John Sayles, this is the story of six women who go to a Latin American country to adopt babies. As in other films by this master of cinema, it is not a simple story with a simple ending. Instead, it is a complex political and social tale that can be viewed on many levels.

There is poverty in the country and hard working people. Many of them work at a luxury hotel, owned by Rita Moreno, now actually 73 years old, speaking only in Spanish and looking very nipped and tucked and prosperous. Her brother is the local lawyer. Her son is a political radical who hates the fact that the babies are being taken away. The six women who must wait several months for their babies come from varied backgrounds and each has her own story to tell. There's Lili Taylor who's tired of waiting for a relationship to blossom and wants to have a baby right away. There's Daryl Hannah, who looks gorgeous and works out and is into massage and health food. Later we find out that she's been through three traumatic birth experiences with babies who just didn't make it. There's Maggie Gyllenhal, who's only 24 years old and has gone through lots of fertility procedures to no avail. There's Susan Lynch, who comes from a large Irish family but who is unable to conceive. There's Mary Steenburgen who is the oldest and most religious of the group and is a former alcoholic. There is also Marcia Gay Harden who is indeed the "ugly American". She complains about everything, tries to bribe the lawyer and comes across as racist. And then there is Vanessa Martinez who plays a chambermaid who has given up a baby for adoption several years before.

Another important element in this film are all the "extras", the real people from Acapulco, where this movie was made. There are also some important small roles given to some of the little boys who live on the street. I found their plight the most heart wrenching of all and wondered what happened to them after the film was made. We see them living in cardboard boxes, washing windshields and stealing. And then we see them sniffing paint thinner. It made the whole subject of cross-cultural adoption even more poignant because if the babies weren't adopted, they would likely wind up like these poor homeless boys. In one scene one of the women gives a child's book to one of the boys. He's easily 8 or 9 years old, but he can only look at the pictures, because, like his companions, he has never learned to read.

We see some flashes of the babies who are waiting for adoption but basically but we never actually get to see them with their new mothers. Wisely, John Sayles stayed away from that kind of syrupy sweetness. Instead, he gave us a hard look at the many perspectives surrounding this film.

There were no less than three 20-minute extra featurettes on the DVD. I learned that the actresses lived together in one big house during the filming and how wonderful that bonding experience was for them. I learned that John Sayles made a massive effort to show the Latin American point of view. In fact, he even mentioned that he had starting thinking about making this film when he made "Men With Guns" which is a chilling film about cruelty and death. Casa de los Babys on the other hand, is poignant in its own way but it addressed many of the same issues. I applaud his sensitivity and the many dimensions he is able to capture through his art. The problem with these three DVD features, however, is that each of them had most of the same footage. I kept watching and watching, hoping that there would be some new material, but it was the essentially the same material, just reworked in different ways. I would suggest therefore, that if you do see the DVD, that watching only one of these small features would be sufficient.

This is a good film. And an important one. It made me think. And that is good.

"Casa de los Babys" is one of director John Sayles best films. It is about six American women who go to Mexico in order to adopt children. The women are played by; Daryl Hannah (Skipper), Lili Taylor (Leslie), Mary Steenburgen (Gayle), Marcia Gay Harden (Nan), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jennifer), and Susan Lynch (Eileen).

In the opening scene of the movie we see what looks like a hospital with children and a nurse taking care of one of them. The next image we see is of small children sleeping in a carboard box being chased away by a man who claims the box is his. And finally we meet the women how are waiting for a baby. When you see all three scenes played out together it has quite an impact. First we have helpless children who are being taken care of, then we see children who have no one, and women who want to take care of children but our stuck in red tape. Sayles keeps shuffling these images around in our heads until the point where I started to think the movie's supports the actions taken by these women. Because, if these women don't take these children, what kind of life is in store for them anyway?

"Casa de los Babys" though tries to present both sides of the issue. We see the reaction some people have to the idea of Americans coming over and taking their children. One man asks, how would they (Americans) feel if we came over and took their children. And then we see small chidlren playing with used condoms, and wondering where they are going to sleep.

But the movie doesn't present these women as imperialist. As the movie goes on we slowly start to gather who these women are. Sayles has written some truly heartbreaking moments as some of the women describe their failed attempts at having a baby. One woman lost three at childbirth. They are not trying to take advantage of anyone. They merely want to have children to take care of and love.

Sayles, with such movies as "Sunshine State" and "City of Hope" reminds me of Robert Altman. Both men like t make these large ensemble pieces where they juggle around various characters who in unexpected ways impact one another's lives. It's a hard kind of movie to make but Sayles always seems more than ready to perform the task. If you haven't seen one of Sayles' movies, I'm not sure this is the place to start but even so, I doubt many people will say they were not somewhat touched by the movie.

As I watched one of the special features on the DVD it seems the movie is against the action of people from one country coming to adopt children from another. But I don't think Sayles reaches his objective. I had the opposite reaction.

Bottom-line: One of John Sayles best films. The acting by the cast is great with Hannah, Gyllenhaal, and Lynch standing out to me. A very touching warm movie.

John Sayles has a way of taking the filters off our civilization that allows us to observe the people around us in a casual manner without any of the clutter of the 'Hollywood take'. His movies deal with real issues, issues that most people would not think fodder for an interesting film or even story. But with Sayles integrity, his films offer the opportunity to 'overhear' as a hidden observer issues that are usually avoided. Some of his other films - 'Lone Star', 'Secret of Road Inish', 'Passion Fish', 'Lianna', and the much underrated 'Sunshine State', among others - have dealt with one-on-one relationships. In CASA DE LOS BABYS Sayles manages to gather six women waiting in Latin America for a baby to adopt, living in a hotel under the hard thumb control of Rita Moreno (always a joy to see in film!). The women are all unique in their desires to adopt, their backgrounds, their expectations, their inner turmoil and their facades, and Sayles quietly and without much hoopla lets us just observe the playing out of their lives as they wait for their 'new babies'. The story works beautifully, largely due (in addition to the direction and writing) to the quality of performances of the cast: Marcia Gay Harden, Mary Steenburgen, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Daryl Hannah, Lili Taylor, and Susan Lynch. And the Latin women who represent the other side of this quasi- legal adoption agency stance are equally well cast. This is a sleeper movie but one that will say with you long after the quiet credits have completed their role down.

I was so deeply immersed in this movie I had a very hard moment when it suddenly ended. The ending might have been at the appropriate time movie wise, but for me it was too fast, without satisfying my curiosity for what happened next. My feeling is also validated by any objective measure as the movie is only 95 minutes long. What does the future hold for these six women and their babies? I remain with my thoughts and guesses built on the information we were given during the film.
"Casa De Los Babys" holds everything I love about movies. A wonderful group of actresses (I admit I was a prejudiced viewer - what can go wrong with such a great group of actresses in a movie about such a feminine issue), a human story where another angel is presented or revealed at each stage of the plot and a beautiful setting. Five of the six characters were able to gain my sympathy (some immediately, some after a while) throughout the movie and the one character that did not, stands out completely and was clearly intended to be brought out this way. Nan, played by Marcia Gay harden is no doubt a character everyone despises although her character might be a little too extreme. The Irish actress Susan Lynch is always a pleasure to watch especially in such an endearing role.
I would like to note that I was mostly surprised and pleased by Daryl Hannah playing "Skipper". This actress never impressed me (except maybe in "Kill Bill"...) but in this movie she manages to deliver a very clear picture of a sensitive woman with an athletic "ice queen" appearance holding much inside. Her secret is exposed in a beautiful scene with Maggie Gyllenhaal playing the rich, somewhat naive Gennifer. This very dramatic scene is a tribute to the acting abilities of both actresses. Skipper is performing a massage to Gennifer who is very clearly uncomfortable with the situation. During their conversation Skipper reveals her past efforts to have a natural child
Another moving scene is when Asuncion, the Latin maid, watches her little sister through the window shields. We only see her eyes but a whole world of feelings is expressed by them.
The six women are waiting for their babies in a foreign land and have no other choice but to be in each other's company. They pass their time touring the area and gossiping about each other. The hottest topic is whetehr this or other woman is worthy of being a mother, and this indeed is what the viewer is also asking himself. However the six women are only part of the whole story. Other semi stories include a group of street children showing us what becomes of these children who were not lucky enough to be adopted, and on the other hand political conversations of the American capitalism and its exploitation of the Latin resources (babies in this case). We are presented with all angels of the baby adoption enterprise and need to draw the conclusions ourselves.
The movie suffers from this surplus of semi plots and characters since it seems the director was more concerned with the "big picture" then with the personal stories which more concern the simple viewer such as myself. Six main characters (each one with enough substance for a seperate tale) and a host of several more sub stories are difficult to present in such a short time. This overflow clearly undermines the outcome.
In any case, a pleasure to watch.

***1/2

John Sayles, always an intriguing filmmaker, has come up with yet another conversation-starting film in "Casa de los Babys," a subtle exploration of the great divide that separates the haves from the have-nots in this maddeningly imbalanced world of ours. Sayles sets his story at a "hotel" in South America, one designed to cater specifically to American women who are waiting to adopt children to take back with them to the States. Due to bureaucratic red tape, many of the ladies Sayles introduces us to have been holed up in the hotel for months. Except for contact with the resort staff and the occasional foray into the local neighborhood, the women are essentially sealed off from the cultural and socioeconomic realities of the world around them.

The thing that separates Sayles' work from that of so many other socially conscious filmmakers is that he is scrupulously fair in his approach, refusing to pigeonhole any one group of people while allowing us to see the imperfections and humanity inherent in those on both sides of the divide. It would have been so easy for him to have portrayed the women as merely spoiled Americans, exploiting the poor of the world for their own selfish benefit. Indeed, one of the men who helps run the hotel decries the ladies as gringo "imperialists," looking to buy Hispanic babies as if they were strolling through the local market. Yet, his mother, who manages the resort and who also resents the imperialistic tone of some of the women, is pragmatic enough to know that this is a "business" like any other, and that the alternative for many of these orphans would be far grimmer if they were forced to fend for themselves out on the streets. In fact, the children in the facility, who are well cared for and who have some hope for the future, are in direct counterpoint to all the youngsters we see who are living in cardboard boxes, forced to wash windshields, beg from tourists, or steal to survive.

Of the American women, the most interesting is Nan (beautifully played by Marcia Gay Harden), who is the most obnoxiously pushy and least culturally sensitive of the group. We get the feeling that the moment she gets her hands on her new child, she will go to work draining every ounce of ethnicity from his or her soul and spirit. The other women are all far more open and tolerant than she is, being mainly concerned with filling that childless void located deep within themselves. The film is, in large part, a series of revealing conversations, in which the women voice their fears, concerns, visions and hopes about life as a parent.

The movie does an interesting job conveying the universality of motherhood, for despite the economic and language barriers that separate them, both the women yearning for babies and the women being forced to give their babies up for adoption are able to meet on the common ground of maternity.

In addition to Harden, there are excellent performances from Mary Steenbergen, Lili Taylor, Daryl Hannah, Maggie Gyllenhall and Susan Lynch as the American women, and Rita Moreno as the hotel manager who understands how the world works even if she doesn't fully approve of it. Each actress manages to create an interesting, fully realized character out of only a limited amount of screen time.

If there's a criticism to be leveled against the film, it is that Sayles leaves a few too many loose ends hanging at the end. As a storyteller, he has never been all that interested in conventional narrative, so this shouldn't surprise us, but we do sense that he could have gone a bit further with his characters here. As it is, "Casa de los Babys" feels somewhat incomplete, more like an exercise - albeit a fascinating one - than a full-fledged drama. Still, for its clear-eyed, three-dimensional and nonjudgmental take on a tricky subject, "Casa de los Babys" is a film well worth seeing.

I think Sayles did a great job bringing together a number of very believable characters and just showing them to us for 90-some odd minutes. John Sayles is one of the best American and original independent filmmakers out there. This is a warm, funny and at times poignant look at the adoption process at a South American clinic attended by six disparate women - all eager and emotionally at odds - awaiting their turn to return home with their new infant. I respect Sayles appreciation of complexity, especially as he favors a film that is pregnant with questions rather than delivering a simple answer. However it's his predilection towards a complex ensemble cast that I think may undermine his films as of late.

The brilliance of this film is exactly the characteristic that many here have criticized it for: it contradicts itself all over the place and ends abruptly with no resolution. All have their contradictions, and none clearly speaks some unambiguous authorial opinion. The son of the hotel owner mouths his leftist analysis with his buddies, but is really a drunken loser. Rita Moreno, through her frustration with her husband's politics, voices the frustration of so many women: politics is one thing, but who'll take care of the kids? And of course, the reverse is implied as well: kids are one thing, but who'll take care of the politics? You can go through each of the characters and seem some inherent pull in opposite directions. What possible resolution could you expect? Adoption is an inherently troubling phenomenon. It always involves awkward intersections of race and class, opportunity and the lack thereof, sex and sexism, law and morals.

I loved that none of the characters is entirely sympathetic, except perhaps the three homeless boys. They are all complicated and corrupted by a complicated and corrupt world that places a premium on babies and motherhood, but only under the "right" circumstances for the right women and the right kids.

I was very grateful that there was no real closure at the end, and that all Sayles had to say was that, despite all, both the least sympathetic and the most sympathetic of the potential moms were about to leave with babies. This is certainly for anyone who is considering adoption (domestic or international -- either way, it's all the same issues) should see it.

I got this DVD by accident, having forgotten that I had already seen it several years ago. I rarely watch a movie twice. The opening scene of the nursery looked suspiciously familiar but it was so lovely that I kept on watching. At no point did I want to stop. I enjoyed it much more this time than the last, which I suspect bears witness to the fact that there is a lot there.

The cast is all superb. The setting, Acapulco is lush, colorful and very beautiful. The locals who play themselves are filmed with the affection and respect that represents John Sayles' point of view. This is a director who has deep love for people and it comes across in so many ways. The scenes of the infants are just precious, without being overly-cute. Each of the main characters is presented objectively--we see the strengths and the weaknesses of most of them, although the Marcia Gay Harden character is clearly the "baddest." (Actually I became fond of her by the end!)

I wasn't bothered by the fact that there were no clear cut resolutions to each woman's "story." I found it too short and would have liked more but it did seem emotionally complete.

There is a scene in which the young Irish-American woman confides her fantasy of what a day with her new daughter would be like, to the Mexican maid who speaks no English. The maid sits on the bed and listens and then tells her story---of her 4 year old daughter adopted and living somewhere, she doesn't know where, in the US. It is an incredibly moving scene---one of the best in "movieland" in my opinion...of how people can communicate from the depth of their hearts even without having the same language.

Casa is a great movie about life and life in South America. While these women are looking to adopt babies, with poor children around. It shows Americans what South America really is.

Although the story meanders and viewers don't know if a point or resolution will ever be reached, the struggle, helplessness and frustration of the situation illustrated in the film is actually the point. A group of wildly different women from all different backgrounds and stations in life form an unwitting bond as they've come to an unnamed South America country to adopt babies. They are forced into waiting interminably, with no word on when they might expect the adoptions to be finalized; only told to wait. With this as a backdrop they are also forced into acquaintances with one another, whether they want to or not, because they have this one thing in common. Each makes assumptions and judgments about the other women-their fitness for motherhood, etc. It is a deeply thoughtful character study about reality versus what's seen on the surface. Daryl Hannah's character is particularly heartbreaking, while Marcia Gay Harden's judgmental, holier than thou and cruel Nan is harboring the most startling personal problems and is a troublemaker and too much on edge. All the performances here are excellent, nuanced and tell a fragile story even if the story is not at all action driven.