DIRECTED BY: James Ponsoldt

STARRING: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Mary Kay Place and Kyle Gallner

SYNOPSIS

A married couple whose bond is built on a mutual love of alcohol gets their relationship put to the test when the wife decides to get sober.

In Smashed we primarily follow the life of Kate Hannah, is a primary school teacher who happens to be quite fond of the drink, just as much as her husband Charlie. When she arrives to work hungover and throws up in front of the kids, she begins to cover up the issue by claiming to be pregnant as a kid asks her if that’s the reason she is sick. After a few nights of waking up in unknown locations after a night of drinking, the school Vice Principal Dave Davies (I know) offers help by inviting her to a support group when he reveals to her he was a former addict. Once Kate goes and gets a sponsor called Jenny and once she becomes sober she begins to look at things in her life from a more clear perspective.

The film could have easily fallen into the TV movie of the week melodrama preaching territory of recovering addicts, but the film has a more human, emotionally light approach to the subject matter. We see the antics of Kate’s extensive drinking to the point of peeing the bed, peeing in a shop floor and smoking crack with a stranger then waking up on under a bridge, beside a lake and the viewer has no idea how long that this has been going on for (though the smoking crack moment  is sort of the breaking point where she realises that she thinks about changing), but it isn’t until help is offered by Mr Davies that she decides to go.

This film could be seen as the pivotal turning point for Mary Elizabeth Winstead as she enchants you on screen as Kate, as she literally carries most of the film on her on as the rest are background characters, bring a charmed and troubled character who comes to realise that her life is fueled by love and especially alcohol and with the latter removed, the cracks start to be noticeable in the former. Aaron Paul does a convincing job as well as her husband Charlie, creating a sympathetic character on someone who could be noted as one dimensional if not for Paul’s portrayal as the husband who continues to binge drink while Kate gets sober.

But that’s one of the issues I had with the film was that when Kate is staying sober, there’s not really much communication with Charlie about asking him not to drink in front of her, until they go to her mother’s house, which he does so (even after being told in a heat of the moment that he can) but once a certain moment happens and you’re like ‘yeah that’s going to come back and bite him in the ass’ and low and behold, it does, and that becomes the turning point, as well as a foreshadowing moment that literally bashes you in the head to say this will happen later. I think they were trying to say was their communication and bond was primarily expressed through alcohol, though I could be misinterpreting that. The final scene will bare heartbreaking similarities to Blue Valentine, but with one line changes the scope of what you know the outcome will be, even though they try to make the ending ambiguous.

Nick Offerman does a good job as former addict Dave that gets Kate into the support group and comes out with one of the most outrageous out of nowhere lines I’ve heard in a film in ages, like an RKO, and given the rest of the film it feels out of place, regardless of how awkwardly hilariously creepy it was. Octavia Spencer does well with her role as Kate’s sponsor Jenny as the voice of morality and hard truths, even if it is a criminally underused role. The cinematography for certain scenes are gorgeous to look at and the film is decently paced.

VERDICT

Ponsoldt brings us a more authentic take on alcohol addiction as say a Hollywoodisation take, with a very good character acting performance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Some extra layers to the script would’ve been helpful in my own opinion, but overall it’s a film worth watching and noticing.  6/10