And John Sayles does it extremely well. I had avoided this movie as many critics had trashed it and for no good reason that I could ascertain.
The story features six very different American women who have come to Mexico in the hope of adopting children due to their own inability (and in one case lack of desire)to conceive. The lawyer in charge of these adoptions and the owner of the resort where they stay are brother and sister and in it for the money, of course. Rita Moreno, whom I haven't seen in years and years plays the sister running the hotel.
The movie is not so much about the stories of the women but about the layering of multiple stories in Mexico. Mexico is never specified but the town portrayed is Acapulco. The homeless beggar children of the street are shown, the maids of the resort coming to work from the mountains every day, a fifteen year old on the verge of giving up her child for adoption, an educated engineer who can't seem to find work anywhere and dreams of Philadelphia.
Over the few months or so that the women have to stay in the resort they begin to bond with one another. John Sayles gets amazing performances out of the actresses, Mary Steenbergen, Darryl Hannah, Susan Lynch, Marca Gay Harden, Maggie Gyllenhall and Lili Taylor. He throws a compassionate eye over the whole process of the adopting of children from one country who sometimes have to abandon their genetic, tribal and cultural origins in their new home.
It begs the question of how a country such as Canada or the U.S. would react if Mexicans came here to adopt our unwanted children.
"Casa de los Babys" is a refreshing take on a very difficult subject and brings honesty and compassion to a heartbreaking topic. 8 out of 10.
The story features six very different American women who have come to Mexico in the hope of adopting children due to their own inability (and in one case lack of desire)to conceive. The lawyer in charge of these adoptions and the owner of the resort where they stay are brother and sister and in it for the money, of course. Rita Moreno, whom I haven't seen in years and years plays the sister running the hotel.
The movie is not so much about the stories of the women but about the layering of multiple stories in Mexico. Mexico is never specified but the town portrayed is Acapulco. The homeless beggar children of the street are shown, the maids of the resort coming to work from the mountains every day, a fifteen year old on the verge of giving up her child for adoption, an educated engineer who can't seem to find work anywhere and dreams of Philadelphia.
Over the few months or so that the women have to stay in the resort they begin to bond with one another. John Sayles gets amazing performances out of the actresses, Mary Steenbergen, Darryl Hannah, Susan Lynch, Marca Gay Harden, Maggie Gyllenhall and Lili Taylor. He throws a compassionate eye over the whole process of the adopting of children from one country who sometimes have to abandon their genetic, tribal and cultural origins in their new home.
It begs the question of how a country such as Canada or the U.S. would react if Mexicans came here to adopt our unwanted children.
"Casa de los Babys" is a refreshing take on a very difficult subject and brings honesty and compassion to a heartbreaking topic. 8 out of 10.