Review of Better Living Through Chemistry (2014) by Jesse O — 06 Jul 2015

Sam Rockwell is one of those guys that, just by being in a film, instantly makes it better. I just think there's something about him that brings some life to otherwise lifeless scripts. As you may have noticed by the score, this is one of this films that Rockwell gives life to and would have otherwise been a pretty bad movie without him.

Though, to be fair, the film does have a pretty solid cast even if Rockwell wasn't there. It's just that they don't really play much of a part of impacting the film's quality one way or the other.

But the film really isn't that good. It's fairly watchable, at best, but it feels like one of those movies that wants to be dark but it doesn't really have the balls to go all the way. It gives off the appearance that it's dark, but it's really anything but.

Particularly when, at its core, in some strange way, this is meant to be a crowd-pleaser. Rockwell's character is likable enough that you want for him to change and for him to realize true 'happiness', if you can call it that, but the film has him do some pretty terrible things and yet he never suffers any consequences of his actions whatsoever.

He could've still come to regret it, but it seems that no matter what Rockwell's character does, he's just gonna get away with it because that's just the way it is. And it just takes all the importance and weight out of anything that happens in the film, because you know that no one is ever gonna reap what they sow.

So, why exactly, should I care about anything that happens? Like I mentioned, it gives off the appearance that it's dark but it's really anything but. It just lacks an edge and a refinement to the script that was more than necessary to make its story far more effective.

It's watchable, at best, but I cannot really recommend this. Sam Rockwell's effort simply does not match the effort put in to making the script better or somewhat interesting. Can't really recommend this, though.

Watch at your own risk.