"Casa de Los Babys" is about adoption. Six very different women are spending a fraught, prolonged waiting period in an undetermined Latin American country, all sharing the same complicated dream: to come home with a Latin American baby to raise as their own. The topic is certainly compelling and the performances convincing, but as a drama, "Casa de Los Babys" never quite comes to life.
Marcia Gay Harden, in particular, is remarkable as the terrifically unlikable Nan, an opinionated Texan who rankles her fellow hopefuls, complains without cease, bribes officials, and steals soaps from the hotel cleaning cart. She is an excellent character, real enough to get under anybody's skin.
The rest of the ensemble cast is equally accomplished. Sayles has created an outstanding set of roles for women: Mary Steenburgen plays a recovering alcoholic, Lili Taylor a tough New Yorker, a single woman who decides she wants her baby without a man. Tall, taut Daryl Hannah is a fitness-obsessed massage therapist, and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a young Southern debutante who hopes a baby will save her failing marriage. Susan Lynch and Vanessa Martinez round out the cast as mournful Irish-American and the baby-faced Latino maid.
It is fascinating to watch the hopeful mothers congregate in the hotel restaurant and attempt to order breakfast in broken Spanish. Sayles plays with the contrast of the seeming wealth of the Americans (whose money can't provide them with the one thing they need) and the stark circumstances of the third world country. His camera also trails a small pack of orphaned boys, seven year old ragamuffins who snort from glue cans and pick pocket: children no one wants.
To tackle his sprawling topic, John Sayles chose to take a snapshot rather than tell a continuous story. With his characteristic well-intentioned earnestness, Sayles assembled an encyclopedia of people affected by the issue and lays them out before us like a map: here's the poor woman who had to give up a beloved child, here are the discarded children, here the parade of possible mothers with their own lists of secret reasons. All facets are rendered vividly as each character reveals what drives them -- but the movie's drama is frozen in time.
