(2007) Out on parole after three years in prison for stealing to support a heroin habit, Sherry Swanson (Maggie Gyllenhaal) arrives by bus in Newark, NJ; gets a room at the Genesis Recovery house; sees non-nonsense Parole Officer Hernandez (Giancarlo Esposito), who warns her to abide by the conditions of her release and to "Get a job as soon as possible"; and has sex with the program director, Andy Kelly.

Her brother Bobby (Brad William Henke) picks her up and brings her home to see her young daughter Alexis (Ryan Simpkins), whom Bobby and his wife Lynette (Bridget Barkan) have been raising in Sherry's absence: "I'm so sorry…. I missed you so much." Sherry truthfully tells Alexis that she was away in jail; she offers the fat, middle-aged employment officer her favors: "I'll suck your dick if you give me the job I want"; she testifies at a Genesis meeting of having been a heroin addict from 16 to 22 but now wanting to keep clean to reclaim her daughter.

After hitchhiking to Bobby's house, she asks for permission to stay a few weeks; her dad and her stepmother Marcia come over for a family dinner. But when Sherry and Lynette (who has instructed Alexis to call her mother "Sherry," not "Mommy") conflict, Bobby takes her to stay at a motel. She calls Dean Walker (Danny Trejo), an Indian recovering alcoholic with Genesis Recovery with whom she'd developed a rapport, to spend the night with her.

She gets a job with a Catholic youth-charity program, working with minority children; but when she calls Bobby, he gives her excuses instead of letting her talk to Alexis. At Alexis's birthday party, Sherry tearfully says to her father, "I feel like they're taking her away from me," while he caresses her breasts.

Feeling helpless, she buys drugs, and then calls Dean, who takes care of her while offering advice: "Stop being so selfish." Back at her motel room, P.O. Hernandez is waiting for her; when she confesses to being dirty and pleads for mercy, he gives her two choices - in-patient care to get clean or back to prison - and an admonition: "You don't want to do the work."

Told to show up Monday morning or else there would be a warrant issued for her arrest, Sherry borrows Dean's car and begs permission from Bobby to take Alexis (who cries and says she doesn't want to go) for a day's outing; mother and daughter head for Delaware, stop for fast food, and talk about Florida.

Director/writer Laurie Collyer's grim, gimlet, unsentimental film strips Sherry (literally and figuratively) of her defenses and pretenses of being capable of raising her daughter on her own.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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