Review
CASA DE LOS BABYS
Starring Darryl Hannah, Marcia Gay Harden and Lili Taylor
Written and directed by John Sayles
Opens Friday, November 14
Uptown Screen
Throughout the course of his quarter-century long career, filmmaker John Sayles has distinguished himself with his unique narrative methodology.
Whether addressing the divisive and sometimes violent politics of 1930s union-building-and-busting (Matewan), civil unrest in a contemporary urban setting (City of Hope) or the aftershocks of American frontier history in the border-towns of Texas (Lone Star), Sayles’s best films have often filtered truth and meaning through the conflicting perspectives of various distinct characters.
This multifaceted approach to storytelling is once again evident in his latest film, Casa de los Babys, a finely observed drama about the common but questionable practice of rich North Americans adopting children from Third World nations. The film is primarily concerned with a group of six upper-class American women, all staying at the same resort in an unidentified Central American country while they await news of their adoption proceedings.
Rendered in impressionistic strokes by some of today’s best actors – Marcia Gay Harden, Daryl Hannah, Lili Taylor, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary Steenburgen and Susan Lynch – the women are portrayed sympathetically but are not above criticism. Each of them genuinely wants a child. The individual reasons motivating them are explored fully, but their desires are played out in counterpoint to the socioeconomic conditions of the country.
For example, Sayles shows us that international disparities in wealth have created a place where unwanted babies are placed, more or less, on the market. It’s not a black market because the government sanctions the adoptions and takes its cut, but it is nevertheless a racket that is designed to eke as many American dollars as possible out of the adoptive parents. The Americans, in turn, are willing and able to pay – as they see it, they are likely to give the children a better, more secure home in a more financially prosperous nation.
Of course, all these assertions raise dozens of moral questions about the ethics of international adoption, and Sayles doesn’t shy away from them. Through a subplot with a number of street urchins, he questions the prospective parents’ desire to adopt a baby when there are older children who remain unwanted. In another sequence, two of the women engage in discussion with a local guide, who reveals that he has limited employment prospects despite his advanced education.
In the film’s most gripping scene, the Irish-American Bostonian played by Lynch explains her fantasy about having a daughter to her Hispanic chambermaid (Vanessa Martinez). The teenage maid responds by telling how she had to give her own daughter up for adoption because she was too young and too busy working to support her brothers and sisters to care for the child herself. Although each woman’s pain is given equal play, neither understands the other’s language, giving the audience a much clearer and more devastating picture of their contrasting perspectives.
It’s always impressive to see the subtle ways that Sayles reveals the complex web of factors that relate to a particularly vexing political issue. Nothing is as simple as it appears on the surface and there is always another side to the story. In Casa de los Babys, Sayles never gives us easy answers to the questions he raises, but by showing us as many perspectives as possible, he leaves us more aware, more compassionate and perhaps less judgmental than when we entered the cinema. |
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