Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Desperate American women, unable to bear children, wait for months at a hotel in Mexico, in order to adopt babies. Meanwhile, homeless and apparently parent less or unwanted children sleep in cardboard shelters and roam the streets, stealing and washing windows for survival, while one young woman reminisces about the baby she gave up, and another, pregnant and 15 years old, is on the path to giving up her baby.This is a very affecting movie. It presents the situation, prompts us to ask the questions, but there are no answers.The characters were interesting, and the performances are compelling. Rita Moreno, especially, was wonderful as the hotel owner.

I remain a Sayles fan, and this film for me shows a step up from "The Sunshine State" albeit with some strong parallels. Here we get another slice-of-life film, centered around a modern phenomenon that is rife with controversy. While Sayles displays some leanings, I disagree with others here that "Casa" is a strident PC harangue. Instead, it seems to me that Sayles is intentionally striving to steer clear of any easy answers, as frustrating as that might be for some of his audience.At least part of the film is looking at borders between people, classes and nations. Additionally there is the border between right and wrong, which may be as permeable as the others. He's working with a tremendous cast, Marcia Gay Harden is mighty talented, but unlike the others I don't think she ever finds her way to the heart of her character. But then her character is the most duplicitous of the bunch.But it is indeed a bunch of characters. Each of the six mothers-in-waiting has her own tale. Additionally toss in some less lucky, abandoned children as huffing street urchins, an adult looking to illegally adopt Philadephia as his home, and a complicated mother-son relationship with Rita Moreno and........como se dice "phew" en espanol?This slice-of-life is perhaps a bit too large to fit on the plate that is serving it. It does help that the six women are at least united in a common quest. But like with "The Sunshine State" I feel this could be an outstanding part of a trilogy. Another shared positive similarity, that monologues here deliver the most memorable parts of the film. Albeit here, the "monologues" are cleverly presented with both Susan Lynch and Vanessa Martinez in the same room at the same time...still separated by a border of language.I respect Sayles appreciation of complexity, especially as he favors a film that is pregnant with questions rather than delivering a simple answer. However it's his predilection towards a complex ensemble cast that I think may undermine his films as of late. His success as a writer/editor/juggler is something to watch, but as a viewer I would like to have had less characters up in the air, and more in hand for longer periods.One last comment, I could enjoy Sayles films with my eyes closed...not just for those aforementioned monologues and in general his ear, but his skill in selecting music is noteworthy. 6/10

I have been a huge fan of John Sayes for a number of years. I think of him as one of the very best directors. I've managed to track down every single movie he's done. I anxiously await each new one he does every two years. This time I was very angry and disappointed. On the Special Features on the DVD, Sayes tells us how he has spent so much time in South America and really "knows" the people. Yet his political perspective on the international adoption process is extremely one sided and very anti-adoption. Seems like he just met the "Che Guevera" segment of South America (the gringos are stealing our babies). This is a uniquely bad experience for me from all his movies. I always felt that I had a total experience from each one of them; not just one extreme point of view. From a cinematography and acting point of view, the movie was good, but not quite up to Sayes greatness.

John Sayles' `Casa de los Babys' is a strange film, even for the eccentric director of such art-house favorites as `Matewan' and `Lone Star.' Strange because I can't tell where he's coming from: Does his film show in typically oblique Sayles' fashion the exploitation of women waiting to adopt children from Latin America? Or is it homage to the industry that delivers babies to needy gringo women?Or is his juxtaposition of scenes with waiting-moms and the careless promiscuity of Latino youths producing unwanted babies transcending this locale into the human irony of those who can't have and those who carelessly have.Probably both, although it is hard to sympathize with the Marcia Gay-Harden character, who lies and steals toiletries from the maid's cart and exhibits questionable activity with the dolls she uses to practice for motherhood. Her ''Believe me, you don't want my husband to have to come down here!'' exclamation is chilling because you know she can cause the trouble. Darryl Hannah's athletic, masseuse mom is the most memorable as her loss of 3 children after childbirth is slowly revealed to a skeptical flock of waiting mom wanabees. Susan Lynch's Irish girl has a soulful exchange with a Latina maid that is poignant because neither understands the other's language, but each clearly understands the longing for motherhood.With little climactic activity and too many separate actions and characters, the story could almost be a faux documentary, and its theme is just about as buried as a well-done news piece from CNN. Although it is not the obviously political `Sunshine State,' it carries weight about the two cultures, which serve each other. Again the Harden character offers the jaundiced point of view: "They're making us pay for our babies with the balance of trade."It is possible Sayles is praising women who wait so long and so promisingly for someone else's children. Shakespeare says it succinctly: `Let her never nurse her child herself, for she will breed it like a fool.'