Sorry, Baby         4 stars

I had heard of the title Sorry, Baby from when it played at the Sundance Film Festival but didn’t know anything about it before seeing it this past week. The film is written by, directed by and starring Eva Victor, a standup comic and improv player. Victor stars as Agnes, a full English professor at a New England liberal arts university who lives alone in a house outside of town with her cat. One weekend she is visited by her friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Mickey 17) who she knows from her graduate school days at the same college. The two are very close and loyal to one another. They can talk endlessly about all sorts of subjects including men. During the visit Lydie reveals that she is pregnant and expecting a baby with her partner. This is a happy occasion except that Agnes wants to make sure that Lydie will still love her, not the expected response. They go out to see other friends from grad school for dinner at their house, when we get the sense that something is not right with Agnes. She has a panic attack and must excuse herself. At other times she is wary of her surroundings when alone. This film is a character study that focuses on one character, someone who makes us wonder what is going on with them as they seem to be alternately strong, then weak. We then go back in time a few years to the time when Agnes and Lydie are both still graduate students working on their theses in the same mentor group. They share the same mentor, an older man named Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi) who is a handsome academic type. He is very impressed by Agnes’ writing and tells her so. There is a convenient reason for Agnes to stop by Decker’s house for more consultation on her thesis, where we find out the reason for all her anxiety. We never see anything happening. The only hint is a very long shot of the exterior of the house, until Agnes leaves looking disturbed. She then drives home in a reckless matter. From then on, we watch as Agnes deals with the trauma with Lydie’s support, following all the prescribed actions when one has faced an attack. For the remainder of the movie Agnes must go about her life but her interactions with other people are always affected by what she went through. She has moments of rage hoping for some form of retribution and at other times she is in need of reassurance, even at one time from her cute guy neighbor next door, Gavin (Lucas Hedges of Boy Erased and Manchester by the Sea), who she asks rather graphically for sex. The title of the film is indicative of things we say to people going through something difficult that may or may not be genuine. Don’t get the wrong impression of the movie. Despite the heavy subject matter it has many moments of comedy that will generate laughs. The final scene of the movie is especially heart wrenching. A few weeks ago, I saw another film on a similar subject, After the Hunt. Sorry, Baby is far superior as it has characters that seem very real and that the audience can relate to.