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In Casa de los Babys, six very different women are thrown
together because of the one thing they share—the desire to adopt a baby. All of them
have traveled from the States to a hotel in South America known by locals as “Casa de los
Babys”—the place where rich Americans come to adopt (buy) South American children. Many
have been there for months, lounging by the pool, buying trinkets in the market, and
generally being waited on while they wade through the red tape.
Leslie
(Lili Taylor) is an editor in New York who’s given up on men, though she’s only in her
early thirties (and many of the other women think she’s gay). Nan (Marcia Gay Harden),
known as “The Lady in 214” to the staff, is bossy and demanding, and she constantly
preaches about the strict—even abusive—parenting techniques she’ll use on her child.
Skipper (Daryl Hannah) is a health nut who’s always either running or swimming. Jennifer
(Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a young, wealthy woman trying to work through marital problems.
Eileen (Susan Lynch) is on a strict budget, since her husband just lost his job. And
Gayle (Mary Steenburgen) is fighting an addiction.
Throughout the movie,
the women tell their stories, and the other women gossip about them behind their backs.
The movie also includes a few clips of Celia, a fifteen-year-old local girl from a
wealthy family, who finds out she’s pregnant, a bunch of homeless little boys, and a maid
who had to quit school to take care of her younger siblings when her parents
died.
Casa de los Babys feels more like a documentary than a
feature film. Very little actually happens. There’s mostly a lot of talk—by the pool,
over dinner, while walking through the market… I have a feeling (okay…I know)
that writer/director John Sayles was trying to make this movie a social commentary—which
I’ve noticed in his movies before—but it tends to make the movie rather dull. On top of
that, there are also quite a few subtitles, which bog the movie down even more. Call me
shallow and unintelligent if you’d like, but I prefer to watch movies that interest me.
Overall, Casa de los Babys is rather ho-hum. Unless you’re really in the mood for
a plotless film about a bunch of women who really aren’t all that interesting, it’s not
worth your time.
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