Parvati Magazine February 2014 - Sobriety | Page 20

FILM

SMASHED

FILM

W

inner
of
the
Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize, the
2012 independent film
Smashed is a comedydrama exploring what
happens to the shared
life of an alcoholic couple
when one person decides
she has hit bottom and
stops drinking.
Kate Hannah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is the alcoholic in question who
chooses sobriety after the
things that happen when
she has been drinking
go from embarrassing to
frightening. A co-worker
(Nick Offerman) reveals
to her that he has been
clean and sober for nine
years, and invites her to
attend Alcoholics Anonymous with him. Meanwhile, her husband Charlie (Aaron Paul), while
still deep in addiction,
has not seen his drinking
lead him into the circumstances Kate has experienced, and he is not yet
interested in changing his
ways. Nor is Kate’s mother
supportive of her choice,
embittered by her ex-husband’s decision to leave

her after he joined AA
while she chose to continue drinking.
Support for Kate comes in
the form of the co-worker
and her sponsor (Octavia
Spencer). Neither of them
varnish the truth about
the challenges of going
sober and having to face
one’s life without being
able to get drunk. The
film itself, for that matter,
does not hold back from
showing the cringe-worthy and painful things that
can happen when an addict is out of control. But it
does so with wryness and
gentle humor, instead of
playing intense music and
feeding a desire for drama as you might see on an
episode of “Intervention”.
There’s something quite
sane and sober about this
directorial choice, knowing how easy it is for addicts or those who grew
up around addicts to engage with drama.
I won’t give away the
next steps for Kate as she
deals with the ongoing
fallout of her drinking and
addictive behavior (such

as having told lie after
lie when the truth would
have been easier), nor
where Charlie goes in his
own journey with alcoholism. But I will say that this is
a film that rings true with
an understanding of addiction that goes beyond
the substance abuse and
into the work of self-healing and humility needed
for any successful recovery.
If there is any complaint
with this film, it is only that
someone dealing with
addiction may look at the
bottom Kate hit and decide that since they are
functioning higher than
that, they don’t need to
get help. Addiction and
its accompanying mindsets and behaviors damage lives whether or not
your use escalates to
other substances or you
need to drink beer in the
shower in order to face
your day. The best time
to stop is before it starts to
look scary.