Sorry, Baby

Directed by Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby follows Victor’s Agnes as she attempts to cope with (and recover from) a traumatic event. Filmmaker Victor, armed with a self-penned screenplay, delivers a relentlessly erratic endeavor that fares especially poorly within its misguided and far-from-engaging first act, as Victor kicks off the proceedings with a context-free, set-in-the-future opening segment that contains little in the way of compelling, attention-grabbing attributes – with Victor’s decision to postpone revealing what happened to Agnes certainly enhancing the arms-length atmosphere (ie something bad seems to be coloring every encounter and conversation). It’s clear, too, that Victor’s reliance on eye-rollingly didactic elements, coupled with a recurring emphasis on ill-fated stabs at humor, perpetuate that semi-watchable yet predominantly frustrating feel, and there’s little doubt, ultimately, that Sorry, Baby’s mild success is due almost entirely to a riveting, refreshingly low-key scene featuring an absolutely spellbinding appearance by John Carroll Lynch – with the impact of this all-too-short-lived interlude elevating the proceedings and paving the way for a closing stretch that fares better than one might’ve anticipated.

**1/2 out of ****