At times, watching a John Sayles movie can feel like sitting in a classroom, learning a Very Important Lesson that will make you a Better Person. For all their message-delivering, though, the writer-director's films almost never come across as didactic or condescending. He's as good at creating compelling and realistic characters as he is at imparting political messages.
In Casa de los Babys, Sayles takes on the practice of rich Americans heading to Latin America to adopt under-privileged babies. His film focuses on a group of six white women—crass, demanding Nan (Marcia Gay Harden); sweet Southern Christian Gayle (Sayles regular Mary Steenburgen); tough New Yorker Leslie (Lili Taylor); fitness-obsessed Skipper (Daryl Hannah); Irish-born Bostoner Eileen (Susan Lynch); and rich, young Jennifer (Maggie Gyllenhaal)—waiting in a hotel in an unnamed South American country to be approved to take their new children home. The film is a day in the life of the mothers-to-be as they explore the surrounding town, interact with the natives, speculate on their futures, and gossip with (and about) one another.
Sayles also follows the hotel's owner, her political-activist son, a local man trying to get work, a trio of homeless kids and a pregnant teen about to give up her own child. It's a little much to tackle in a 90-minute film, and it means some of his main characters get shafted on screen time. There seems to be a sprawling epic under Sayles' brief, slice-of-life film, and this is the rare movie that could actually benefit from being longer. But what we end up with is fascinating, and Sayles demonstrates a remarkable ability to fully flesh out characters who are on-screen for only a short time.
The six central women are all wonderful, especially Harden as the bitter Ugly American who doesn't hide her contempt for the country that's handing her a child. Rita Moreno also shines as the classy hotel owner, who's alternately grateful and resentful of the women who inhabit her property.
Casa de los Babys only steps from good to great in one scene, though: Eileen delivers a heart-breaking monologue about her hopes for a child to a maid who can't understand a word of it, and the maid then relates the tale of her own child who's now living "up North" to an uncomprehending Eileen. Their connection is brutally clear despite the language barrier. It's a beautiful, haunting moment, reminiscent of more powerful Sayles films like Lone Star and Matewan, and alone makes this movie worth seeing.