Nothing has been known to expand our minds as vastly as drugs. Acid can allow us to see through the cracks in our world. Good weed can make even the most withdrawn wallflower bloom right out of the dirt and into the realm of popularity. Drugs have pretty much invented great music, good writing and epic art. Alcohol, on the other hand, can make us sloppy and vicious and cause us to pee our pants. In the case of the characters in this movie, peeing the bed and on the floor in a quickie mart.
I happen to love movies about drugs. Mostly because people who use drugs tend to be interesting. Whether claiming to be lizard kings, shoving their heads into mountains of marching powder, or rolling down the river on a journey to rock at the bottom of the social cesspool, movies about drugs do in fact rock because drugs can put even the most uninteresting person in interesting predicaments. Since alcohol makes you vomit and pee all over the place guess what movies about alcoholics will give us? This film is a perfect example as it pretty much is a showcase for all of the behavior mentioned here.
Really the only reason I was interested in seeing this movie at all was because it starred Aaron Paul, who of course plays Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad. I am a fan of actor Bryan Cranston, Walt.
This man never ceases to amaze me with his ability to become so many different roles and elude being typecast forever as "Heisenberg." Since the makers of the show are being dicks and making us wait so damn long for new episodes I thought it would be interesting to see how Aaron Paul kicks it when he's not shucking and jiving with his old pal WW with a pipe in one hand and a glock in the other.
First off, anybody who is rolling along the same train track of thought here should know up front that Aaron Paul is not the star of this movie. He is the husband of the star of the movie. Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead clocks in most of the offending behavior and screentime in this 80 minute ad for AA, which can stand for Alcoholics Anonymous just as easily as it does Assholes Anonymous.
The film centers around drunk characters Kate and Charlie. Winstead's Kate gets most of the dialogue and drunken antics before realizing that a life spent vomiting and peeing in beds and on floors really is not as much fun as it probably sounds to somebody somewhere. She decides to get sober and thus begins her journey through the duration of the films running time. A journey that Aaron Paul, as Charlie, spends much of passed out or laughing on a couch or in a bar.
From the perspective of both film and performances, the movie was pretty bland. Actors deliver their lines instead of snorting them and then the credits roll. As much as I love a good coke out ala Johnny Depp or Big Al, movies about drunk people just don't really do it for me. I myself am a beer lover and enjoy the taste of a good one here and there. I just don't cuddle the idea of falling down the steps or wrecking my car, in real life or within the context of a story. Even then, being a drunk tends to not even be all that eventful as none of the events in this particular film even rival such scenarios.
I love movies about fucked up people and I love watching people get fucked up. Who doesn't? It's part of that "better them than me" game we all wanna play from time to time in efforts to lift our sagging spirits. The thing is though that I have met some very interesting fucked up people and this movie doesn't center its core around anyone even remotely interesting. Kate throws up and tells people she is pregnant. Charlie lays on the couch and wishes that people would remember his name is really Charlie and not Jesse. Shit man, the little screentime this guy had I was actually hoping that old Heisenberg would step out of the shadows and wipe up Kate's vomit or piss with this guys drunk ass.
There are some other actors in this thing. Megan Mullaly plays pretty much the same character she plays in everything except she is not funny.
In her defense, this was not billed as a comedy so she was probably asked not to be funny. Octavia Spencer from "The Help" plays Kate's sponsor.
Since the movie is about Kate her character doesn't really do much of anything noteworthy. I would have loved to see her bake everybody at one of the meetings a shit pie, so they can all remember why they shouldn't drink or eat shit, like what she did to that lady in the other movie, but she didn't so I really have nothing else to say about her.
Kate's journey is not really all that riveting to me. She lies and gets busted. Nobody wants her to succeed. She relapses and then gets back on track so the movie can end with some kind of meaning. What was the meaning of all this? Drinking only leads to throwing up and peeing where you shouldn't. I was young once. My youth has already informed me of these things so this is a lesson I don't need. Besides, when I sit down to watch a movie I don't want to be taught anything. I want to be entertained. I never found drunk people to be entertaining and I never will. Sadly, I wish this was a lesson that I had recalled before I decided to sit through this movie.
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