Casa de los babys
IFC Films | Release Date: September 19, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
15
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
John Sayles's heartrending new film is a many-splendoured thing. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Sayles accomplishes another of his coups here. Eschewing all sentiment, avoiding all pathos, keeping his film and most of the women hard as nails, he manages to tell a compelling story. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
But Babys also resembles "Sunshine State" in another, more satisfying way: It leaves you longing to know what happens to these characters once the movie ends. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Babys is intellectually stimulating and emotionally stirring, a rare combination these days, though hardly unusual for writer/director John Sayles. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Sayles handles this material with gentle delicacy, as if aware that the issues are too fraught to be approached with simple messages. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Sayles seems to be trying, single-handedly, to correct centuries of First World self-centeredness in Third World contexts. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Some of the pieces in its jigsaw puzzle are too fragmentary, and there's a sense of racing against time to fill in the blanks. Yet the movie's even-handed portrayal of two cultures uneasily transacting the most personal business resonates with truth. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
If Casa de los Babys isn't necessarily a fully realized film, it's still a deeply felt glimpse into dizzyingly complex political and psychological forces that shape the most crucial decisions of a woman's life. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Marcia Gay Harden is an angry vulgarian who steals shampoo off the maids' carts and bribes a lawyer to get her baby. Sayles may not have planned it this way, but Harden makes crassness as powerful as any maternal instinct. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
But the movie goes absolutely nowhere. It allows us to be a fly on the wall to a whirlwind of gossip, confessions and intimate moments. But when the ending comes, it's an epic letdown. It's just so much Oprah-esque eye candy, without a point of view, or a plot. Read full review
63
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Hobbled by weak argumentation, a character who winds up a complete muddle, and Sayles’s inclination to romanticize Latin American revolutionary types, Casa is as mixed an effort as the filmmaker has essayed in some time. [October 2003, p. 18]
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Admittedly, mediocre Sayles is still watchable, but, relative to expectations, Casa de los Babys is a disappointment of significant proportions. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Unlike most Sayles movies, the filmmaker no sooner introduces his memorable characters and deeply resonant themes than his From Here to Maternity melodrama abruptly ends. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Asks questions worth pondering. I only wished the writer-director-editor answered more of them. Read full review
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