‘Sorry, Baby’: Eva Victor Masterfully Confronts the Toll of Trauma in Piercing Debut

Alci Rengifo

There are moments in life where we meet someone and notice particular features or behavior patterns that suggest something happened to them. We are all marked by painful moments in life’s journey, but then there is real trauma in the form of an event that leaves years-long aftershocks. Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby” piercingly focuses on a woman shaped by a tragic moment. It is one of the best films of its kind because it does not need to resort to loud melodrama or the wishful resolutions of most fiction. In real life, we don’t act as heroically as we would wish, good friends are rare and the world doesn’t care about your feelings. 

Victor also stars in the film. She plays Agnes, a woman first introduced in her early 30s who has just attained tenure at her New England grad school. Her old roommate and best friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), arrives to catch up and announce that she is pregnant. They seem so natural and joyful together. Then, the narrative goes back in time to their student days, when Agnes showed much promise as a grad student specializing in American literature. Her talent is recognized by her professor, Decker (Louis Cancelmi), who has a habit of sending direct messages praising Agnes’ work and sharing about his life as a divorced father. At first, it just seems like the normal behavior of a trusted mentor.  When Agnes visits Decker’s home one afternoon to go over her thesis paper, something terrible takes place and she will never be the same after emerging from that house. 

Rarely is the subject of rape treated with the kind of intimate, reflective intelligence of this film. Victor’s screenplay does not descend to the crude depths of using Decker’s rape of Agnes as some thriller inciting incident. Instead of showing us the incident, Victor lets the camera follow a dazed Agnes home, where she shares the details with Lydie like a survivor in shock. Her life will never be the same after what they call “the Bad Thing.” It will be the silent presence in every subsequent chapter of her life. There are nights when a mundane sound may frighten her in bed. A trip to a grocery store may carry the ominous fear of bumping into her attacker. Cinematographer Mia Cioffi Henry turns the overcast, windswept terrain of New England into a visual expression of Agnes’ grinding sadness. She carries on with life because she has to, even as the Bad Thing surely replays over and over in her mind. When she finds a stray kitten on the street, the moment is not corny but a wonderful example of the tiny wonders that can offer a small beginning towards healing.

“Sorry, Baby” is also a great film about friendship. Lydie is the friend who does not cast judgement, only understanding when Agnes reveals what happened. She stands by her friend when facing a boomer male doctor who asks Agnes about her attack with a bored, nearly dismissive manner. This is genuine maturity and also a stark depiction of how a traumatic event truly unfolds. There can’t be heroic antics when your emotions and body are shaken, or when the relationship with your attacker is complicated. Decker’s road to raping Agnes began with the development of trust, something so fragile that when broken, some individuals can be left frozen. The story evolves through various sections that catch up with Agnes weeks and then years after the event, in each one we see how she has grown in her career as Lydie moves away and finds love with a wife and child. 

The world keeps going and the story stays with Agnes. With each new chapter, Agnes has moved further away from the Bad Thing and yet it’s still buried beneath her evolving behavior patterns. She finds physical solace with a nice neighbor, Gavin (Lucas Hedges), but when he brings up questions about wanting a family in the future, she’s not ready to consider it or know if that’s what she even wants. In a rather moving scene, going to jury duty also forces Agnes to almost publicly confront her inner condition. That Agnes is brilliant and liked by many, a point made by her jealous classmate Natasha (Kelly McCormack), does not protect her, or anyone, from the bad things that can occur without warning. Nothing that has occurred is her fault, though Victor, who delivers one of the summer’s great performances, also denies us the cheap Hollywood satisfaction of revenge. Those who hurt us tend to fade away in the corridors of memory.

“Sorry, Baby” is one of those special films that feels like it’s about real people. In the way the casting works and even in the costume design, the characters inhabiting this story are stripped of the glamorization of survival Hollywood tends to espouse. Victor captures ever so subtly the pain in a smile, or those small ticks in someone who is still processing a shattering event years after it occurred. Naomi Ackie’s Lydie is strong and likable, not as a caricature but as one of those rare good people we do indeed find in life. This is a film about those moments we need to make it through, when an enlightening conversation with a decent stranger or a friend admitting they will set something on fire for you can mean the world. 

“Sorry, Baby” releases June 27 in select theaters.