Gender roles are becoming increasingly fuzzy, even in Hollywood. As women go all out for traditionally male stuff (murderous rampages, aerial stunts, choosing careers over relationships) and men turn "feminine" (tender, loving, willing to share child-care and wash the dishes) there are still some themes that remain labeled "gender specific." In "Casa de los babys," director John Sayles gives it to us in one word: babies.
In an age when men in cinema are just as involved in marriage-building and parenting as their partners, Sayles basically says that when it comes to the issue of diapers and bottles, men are, well, extraneous. In "Casa" men aren't even around, and from the very beginning, babies are treated as women's business. The production notes show a photo of the director surrounded by his (almost) all-woman cast -- "Casa de los babys" is just full of women.
There are the six central characters: American women about to adopt babies in an unspecified South American city, who find themselves thrown together in a hotel while waiting for the red tape to be cleared. Some of them have been waiting for two months, others for weeks. (In reality, the required length of stay differs from country to country: In Chile, it's a minimum of two months while in Mexico, it's two weeks.) All are jittery and eager to meet the new additions to their families and take them back home.
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