Casa de los Babys (2003)

Just what I expected

From my favorite movies..

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I must say I am a minor fan of Sayles, having enjoyed several of his movies (Lone Star in particular). And when it comes to creative endeavors, I'm all for people wearing multiple of hats - singer / songwriters have my deep respect, as do writer / directors. But the editing of this film should have been left to another person, as Sayles was most likely too close to see it objectively by the end of filming, and consequently the film suffers. Case in point: watching the DVD extra features, I was introduced to the background motivation for the various characters via the interviews with the actors. Too bad that background didn't actually MAKE IT INTO THE MOVIE! Is it on the cutting room floor somewhere? Who knows.This film is a mish-mash of characters, situations, and locales - NONE of which are developed in a satisfactory manner. As a result we are left to watch a variety of bland scenarios involving people we don't really know doing things we don't fully understand or really care about in a country somewhere in South America. The side plots, not being fleshed out, are more of a distraction than anything, which is a shame. The intersection of adoption, first vs. third world economics, capitalism, etc. would seem to be a fertile one, but the movie for some reason doesn't employ this to anywhere near full advantage. If being boring is the cardinal sin of movie making, this film will probably pass purgatory altogether and go straight to hell.As for the acting, It was a real treat seeing Rita Moreno after all these years. Marcia Gay Harden was terrific as the ugly American (I really hated her). Daryl Hannah was so-so as the new age health nut suffering in silence (though not quite enough silence for me - I started to wonder when she would whip out the chicken gizzard in the "psychic surgery" scene - can Hollywood please stop validating new age BS please?). Mary Steenburgen is always welcome, though she played a rather low-key role here. Lili Taylor seems doomed to play Lili Taylor for the rest of her life: outspoken, brash, self-assured to a fault, and a bit too quick on the snappy reply, though she did have some of the best lines. I had the feeling Susan Lynch was cast in order to relieve some of the white breaded nature of the US cast - she was generally fine, but her scene with the maid struck me as insensitive and self-indulgent (not what Sayles intended, I'm pretty sure). But the real sore thumb here was Maggie Gyllenhaal who played a weak, weepy, superstitious, infantile character that seriously grated on my nerves. The movie would be 10% better if her character were just somehow cut out.I just about fell off the sofa when the character played by Susan Lynch was relating her fertility surgery - paraphrasing: "they did a tubal ligation or something on me along with other things I can't even begin to understand". Earth to Susan's character: no wonder you are having fertility problems, you were freaking sterilized! Here's a tip: you might want to spend two minutes Googling your medical issues before someone starts carving you up like a thanksgiving turkey. Why the hell didn't one the actresses pick up on this and have Sayles fix it? I was struck dumb by this glaring technical idiocy, and it took me a while to come to my senses and get back into the movie (such as I was able to) after that.And when did it become OK again for movies to portray women as total flitty morons? Haven't we as a people progressed beyond this point over the last couple of decades or so? Some of the dialog was embarrassing close to "I don't know nothing about birthing no babies" - and these are supposedly women with fertility issues, who I would expect to have at least a passing knowledge on the subject. I'm aware that people like this do exist in real life, but can they not be rubbed in our noses as some kind of example of normalcy by Hollywood quite so much? Am I asking for too much here? My rating: 4/10

Six American women have traveled to a South American country in order to adopt a baby. They are housed at a hotel for several months as the process takes some time. One of the them is a health nut who lost three babies of her own. Two wealthy ones are determined to adopt for their husbands' sakes and three single women long for the chance to become parents. Intermingled with their stories are tales of the mostly hapless natives of the country. There is a pregnant teen who is a shame to her mother, a young housekeeper who had to give her own baby up for adoption in order to support her family, and a young man with a dream to go to the United States and become wealthy. In other words, the story is tantalizing. Who, if any, will benefit from the situation? The story here is first rate. Human nature is shown at its best and at its absolute worst (Marcia Gay Harden's character is certainly one of the most despicable persons ever put on screen). Countries must make difficult choices for economic reasons and children are thus reduced, to some extent, to being commodities. The last scene of the movie is a stunner, summarizing the film in a heart-wrenching conclusion. Although the pace is slow, those who stick with this film will be both rewarded by it's scope and distraught over it's contents. Movie viewers who love films with merit and bite will find this one a top choice.

The Director jumps into deep waters to intentionally choice avoiding the diving. The result, of course, could not be other than a pretentious work, characterized by the lack of research as well as the simplicity used to solve a plot full of ridiculous stereotypes. Even when the intentions may have been noble, what this complex story brings to the surface is only enormous ignorance and the effort to sell such ignorance as intellectual thought. Pretentious. Poor. Ridiculously embarrassing. It could be considered a small prove that the American stereotype may not be so wrong after all when reflecting the American society as arrogant and proud of its ignorance… It definitely proves that about John Sayles.

Desperate American women, unable to bear children, wait for months at a hotel in Mexico, in order to adopt babies. Meanwhile, homeless and apparently parent less or unwanted children sleep in cardboard shelters and roam the streets, stealing and washing windows for survival, while one young woman reminisces about the baby she gave up, and another, pregnant and 15 years old, is on the path to giving up her baby.This is a very affecting movie. It presents the situation, prompts us to ask the questions, but there are no answers.The characters were interesting, and the performances are compelling. Rita Moreno, especially, was wonderful as the hotel owner.