SMASHED (James Ponsoldt). See listing. Interview with actor Mary Elizabeth. Rating: NNN
The marriage of two young drunks (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul) is tested when she decides to get sober – and he doesn’t.
Still working the functioning-alcoholic angle he played in Off The Black, director and co-writer James Ponsoldt has made a movie that feels as unstable as its protagonists. It wobbles between uncomfortable comedy and shattering drama, sometimes in the same scene.
Winstead is virtually unrecognizable from her more composed turns in Scott Pilgrim and that Thing prequel, and Paul does a more solicitous version of Breaking Bad’s ruined Jesse Pinkman.
But the pieces don’t quite snap together the way they should. Ponsoldt can’t help underlining every Big Emotional Turning Point, and while Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally and Octavia Spencer do their best to give their supporting roles some humanity, the movie never uses them as anything more than plot devices.
