'Smashed' is a fresh take on getting clean

By Rene Rodriguez
The Miami Herald

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Nov 09, 2012

~~<p>They're young, in love and totally hammered. Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a first-grade school teacher, sits in her car and chugs from a flask before going in to teach her students. Charlie (Aaron Paul), a music critic, gets to sleep in and drink on the job, because concerts and booze are a natural fit. They're functioning alcoholics, they enable each other, and they get along great when they're plastered. Who needs sobriety, anyway?</p>
<p>"Smashed," a refreshingly concise and focused study of a woman under the influence, follows what happens when Kate has a moment of self-realization — she wakes up one morning lying in the street, having smoked crack with a stranger after a drinking binge — and decides she needs to correct her life. Director James Ponsoldt, who co-wrote the script with Susan Burke (inspired in part by her own experiences), opts for realism and modesty instead of sensation. There are no harrowing tragedies or depressing plot twists, the way most films about alcoholism go about forcing their protagonist to get sober.</p>
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<td><strong>‘SMASHED’</strong><br />
<strong>Rated:</strong> R<br />
<img alt="*" src="http://media.staradvertiser.com/images/bullet_bluestar.gif" /><img alt="*" src="http://media.staradvertiser.com/images/bullet_bluestar.gif" /><img alt="*" src="http://media.staradvertiser.com/images/bullet_bluestar.gif" /><br />
<em>Now playing at Consolidated Kahala</em></td>
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They're young, in love and totally hammered. Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a first-grade school teacher, sits in her car and chugs from a flask before going in to teach her students. Charlie (Aaron Paul), a music critic, gets to sleep in and drink on the job, because concerts and booze are a natural fit. They're functioning alcoholics, they enable each other, and they get along great when they're plastered. Who needs sobriety, anyway?

"Smashed," a refreshingly concise and focused study of a woman under the influence, follows what happens when Kate has a moment of self-realization — she wakes up one morning lying in the street, having smoked crack with a stranger after a drinking binge — and decides she needs to correct her life. Director James Ponsoldt, who co-wrote the script with Susan Burke (inspired in part by her own experiences), opts for realism and modesty instead of sensation. There are no harrowing tragedies or depressing plot twists, the way most films about alcoholism go about forcing their protagonist to get sober. ‘SMASHED’ Rated: R Now playing at Consolidated Kahala Login for more...