Review of Smashed (2012) by Warwick B — 31 Dec 2012

Smashed is the story of a young, hard boozing, married couple, Charlie (Aaron Paul) a journalist working from home and Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) a primary school teacher, and what happens to them when Kateâ??s decides to seek help, join AA and get sober â?? the aftermath of her drinking binges have escalated from embarrassing to scary.

Sobriety isnâ??t as easy. Years spent dulling the pain with drink, Kate has to face everything sheâ??s been hiding from and calls into question her relationship with Charlie â?? is it built on love or just boozy drunkenness?

Director James Ponsoldt serves the drama straight up, simply presenting us with a couple in a rut that only one of them can see and wants to get out of. It is a recovery film about deception, mutual dependency and making choices rather than hitting rock bottom. It is about the very real and difficult task of going on, in an emotionally unshielded and vulnerable way. Addiction is not, after all, about loving the substance and what it does for you; it's about the way it numbs or otherwise blocks out actual feelings from intruding on the user's world.

Paul is wonderful as the easy-riding Charlie, a guy who has no particular ambitions and is happy to roll with it, â??sloshedâ??. Winstead, his partner in crime, is heartbreakingly real as Kate, who wants to be more than her addiction. Nick Offerman who plays, Mr Davies a recovering colleague and Octavia Spencer, Jenny her sponsor, are also great. But this is Winsteadâ??s film â?? an outstanding central performance worthy of awards, painfully honest and unadorned.