Sorry, Baby movie review: A bitingly real film about trauma, told with humour and humanity

We are shown none of what actually happens, but not one of us are in any doubt about what is taking place in that house, where Agnes was welcomed in by Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi), who has successfully established the kind of accomplished, older-man sexiness that is meant to instantly disarm, and charm, a younger person: what do you do if your prof calls a part of your thesis, duly underlined in a yellow marker, ‘extraordinary’?

What is remarkable about Victor’s Sundance breakout, a taut 104 minutes, is the way it refuses to position Agnes as a classic victim, even though there’s enough reason for it. The unfeeling way the (male) doctor at the clinic Agnes and Lydie fetch up for a physical examination, is a bit on the nose. As is the sequence in which the administrators of the college throw up their hands at their inability to do ‘anything more’ other than give her a sympathetic ear because she didn’t ‘complain’ in time.

But in the rest of it, we see how Victor refuses to box in her character, showing Agnes’s leaning into her assaulter’s circle of charm– you can see a mutual attraction spark at an admiring glance or text– as something completely natural.

In the way Agnes’s stunned, near wordless response is depicted, and understood, by Lydie is terrific : it shows the closeness of Agnes and Lydie, and their shared codes of things that don’t need to be spelled out, even some years later, when we come upon them: Lydie now lives in New York, a and is pregnant; Agnes has stayed in the same town, and has a teaching job at the same college where everything happened.

Watch the Sorry, Baby trailer here:

Post-assault, pain, loneliness and the angst– the horror rising up to the surface every so often, as disturbing things do– becomes something to be lived with, even if post #MeToo, there has often been as much gain as loss for women coming forward with their stories of assault. Here again, the film is unafraid to show Agnes as someone who has accepted that she will have to live with all of it, and still remain her own person : her awkward yet affecting reaching out to her neighbour (Lucas Hedges, very good) is testament to her still having retained a sense of humour– one of the funniest scenes in the film involves a bath-tub, two naked humans, and a conversation which feels bitingly real.

Bitingly real could, in fact, be the succinct descriptor of ‘Sorry, Baby’, a film whose title’s intent, and impact is revealed right at the end. What we are left with is equal parts heart-in-mouth and bracing: dealing with muted trauma is exhausting and never-ending– a panic attack anywhere, anytime can be the result– and how, sometimes, all one needs is a stranger’s kindness and a good sandwich, to make things better.

Sorry, Baby movie cast: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Louis Cancelmi, Kelly McCormack, Lucas Hedges, Hettiene Park, John Carroll Lynch
Sorry, Baby movie director: Eva Victor
Sorry, Baby movie rating: 3.5 stars