Synopsis: Sherry (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has just been released from prison after becoming a heroin addict and getting caught in a robbery. After winding into a half-way house she tries to re-establish her relationship with her young daughter who was taken in by Sherry's brother and wife.We learn that Sherry has been molested by her father after a scene at her daughter's birthday party which may have contributed to her sleeping around vicariously since leaving prison. She tries to establish a life working at a kid's school and fighting her addiction as well as her brother and his wife's attempt to keep her separated from her daughter.
Comments: A strong performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal, a vibrant actress in independent films and soon the new Batman: The Dark Knight movie this summer. The movie establishes the character of Sherry as a strong willed person but also weak in her dabbling in drugs and sex to try and cope with her prison, abuse, and relationship-troubled past.
The viewer will become well acquainted with the character and her fight to reunite with her daughter and maintain her life on the straight and narrow. I just wish the ending was more fruitful instead as feeling truncated and ending abruptly.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
