Calling MATLAB from Python, is it worth it?

Long story short, I work on a feature selection algorithm that uses a shallow neural network with the Levenberg-Marquardt optimizer. I ported the algo from MATLAB to Python, but the neural network is way slower, at worst 100x (the ported version is optimized as best as it could be rn). Boss wants to move back to MATLAB, but I was thinking of a middle ground with calling the MATLAB ANN from Python.

I'll certainly look into it further, but I wanted to hear your input on my idea. How major is the overhead? Any experience working with MATLAB in Python? Maybe an alternate solution?

edit: thanks folks, I'll look into a few solutions, will update with my experiences