The 2014 Sundance Film Festival in full swing in Park City, Utah, so I decided to revisit a feature from the 2012 festival, 'Smashed.'
A film about addiction, recovery, and the life you choose to lead.
I've always been fascinated by addiction. Throughout the years, it's come to my attention that I have a fairly addictive personality as well. If I like something, I don't just "like" it, I consume myself with it. But THAT is an entirely different conversation. Naturally, stories of alcohol and drug addiction have always been something I've enjoyed – I realize how that sounds, but it's true. Smashed is a film that focuses on one woman's choice to get sober and facing the reality of her new life once everything isn't clouded by smokey bars, drunk bicycle rides home, and her husband, who in reality, might not be the best one for her.
Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, in an unforgettable performance) is a schoolteacher who doesn't let her job get in the way of drinking — heavily — often in the car before her school day starts. Her husband, Charlie (Aaron Paul!), is a slacker music-journalist who mentions work frequently but never seems to actually be doing much of anything — he drinks a lot too. These two have fucked each other up pretty bad. Their bond in marriage is sealed as tight as a bottle of Vodka on their shelf. They seem in love but both share the poisonous disease of addiction. Example: Kate wets the bed, often.
When we first meet them they are "happy" but it doesn't take long to see that their relationship is built on a shaky foundation of co-dependence and addiction over love of each other. Within the first ten minutes, Kate hits rock bottom in a blurred swirl of crack-smoking, public urination, and stealing – not to mention throwing up in front of her class of 1st Graders. One of Kate's co-workers (Nick Offerman), invites her to enroll in Alcoholics Anonymous and join him in sobriety. Hesitant at first, Kate reluctantly tags along one night is immediately taken by the people and their stories. After that night, she doesn't have another drink. It's here where Smashed really begins. How does a marriage built on sickness work once someone decides they don't want to be sick anymore?
Kate and Charlie's relationship is defined by mutual enabling but where the film thrives is watching the happiness and carefree spirit crumble into darkness and emptiness as Kate steadily starts to enjoy her life away from her husband and alcohol. Through a suggestion of her AA sponsor (the always warming and excellent Octavia Spencer), Kate decides to take a trip to visit her estranged mom in the country. Feeling a tad distanced from his wife, Charlie decides he wants to come along for the trip and Kate allows it under one condition – he can't drink. Kate's mom is an alcoholic, too. She is skeptical to hear about Kate's decision as she thinks nothing good can come from sobriety. When Kate's father got sober he packed up and left the family for good leaving Kate's mom to continually return to the bottle for comfort. Her warnings aside, Kate continues to believe and be happy in her new addiction-free life. Before Kate and Charlie leave the country, they visit Santa's Village, an abandoned amusement park Kate used to visit as a child. In the ruins of the park, they dance and hug and share several moments of real, honest affection to each other as the sun glistens off them. It's magical and one of the highlights of the film. For the first time, the two share an intimate, loving moment without an ounce of alcohol in their bodies. Of course, all their problems are waiting for them when they return home.
Smashed hits a lot of familiar notes but it's aided in uniqueness by writer-director James Ponsoldt assured vision. There's no overly sentimental moment or major lessons learned that don't feel honest and earned. Smashed is essentially about the choices we have to make in life and how sometimes those choices can have a major affect on the ones we love and hold closest. Winstead and Paul give remarkable performances ensuring the domestic drama never feels forced or played out. Winstead, in particular, gives such an intelligently nuanced performance it's a shame she was hardly recognized for it. It's real in every sense of the word. Smashed isn't exactly an easy movie to watch but it's one that deftly walks a tightrope between pain and denial and that moment in life you realize it's time to be true to yourself and make a change – for you and not anyone else.
GRADE: A-
Smashed is available on Netflix via DVD only.
Find Smashed on iTunes here
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