Review of Smashed (2012) by Samuel A — 19 Mar 2013

"Smashed" is the story of an alcoholic school teacher(Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who realizes her life is going downhill and attempts to get sober. The only problem is her husband(Aaron Paul) continues to drink and plays as an enabler instead of actually helping her.

This is a pretty low budget independent movie, which is fine, but it's very slow. Other than the scenes where she is spinning out of control, the movie plays more like a "lifetime tv" movie.

Aaron Paul does a good job, but Winstead to me wasn't that good. She seemed more like someone who pretends to be drunk and does it way over the top, rather than someone who actually has a problem.

Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart" or Denzel Washington in "Flight" played it perfectly, here she plays it the opposite. Now, those are completely different in tone, but still, it's almost like she is a parody.

If she had more emotional scenes about her past and what makes her want to drink so much, this could have been a very strong drama. It's ok for a one time watch, but I'd say most likely just skip it.