Starring: Andrea Riseborough, Marc Maron, Andre Royo, Allison Janney, Stephen Root, James Landry Hebert, Owen Teague
Distributor: Kismet
Runtime: 119 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Strong character portrayal of a lonely woman, Leslie, crashing into personal despair but finding a possibility for redemption.
How far is down? How far down does one have to go before the possibility of looking up with some kind of hope is possible? This is the experience of Leslie in this portrait of a reckless alcoholic mother.
Riseborough received an unexpected Oscar nomination for her performance as Leslie. It is certainly a worthy and powerful performance. A British actress who has had some success in the US, she becomes Leslie.
The setting is Texas – one of those towns out in the empty spaces, touches of the wild west, the bars, drugs, tough attitudes towards life. And Leslie is part of it. When she wins the lottery unexpectedly, she is wildly excited, a glimpse of her young son who would like some kind of home – and then suddenly, the screenplay goes to ‘six years later’.
During the credits there is a range of photos of Leslie, indicating some ups, but some downs as she grows older, grimmer, thinner, rather haggard – and, as we meet her again, she is desperate, kicked out of a motel, drinking, hunkering down outside a store sheltering from the rain. How are we going to respond to Leslie? She’s not very sympathetic in her down and out condition.
There is one sign of hope. She tracks down her son James, now 20, disappointed in her but still loving her, taking her to his apartment, urging her to have a plan, but she lies to him, drinks, and James finds that he can do nothing to help her, phoning her sister and appealing for help.
Her sister is no help, neither is her bikie boyfriend (interesting roles for Janney and Root). There are recriminations about the past. And, Leslie’s behaviour and drinking continues at the local bar.
Just as the audience is despairing that anything good can happen for Leslie, she encounters Sweeney (an engaging performance by Maron), working at a motel, who out of some kind of initial compassion offers her a job cleaning the rooms. Audiences can identify with Sweeney, perhaps much more empathetic towards Leslie than we the audience might be, especially if this were real life and our experiences. Sweeney works for his friend, Royal (Royo), who had inherited the motel but was a spaced out addict in the past.
Once again, ups and downs. Leslie continues to be inconsistent, actually good at cleaning, but unreliable. Yet, Sweeney has compassion for her. A dramatic episode highlights difficulties for Leslie in the town, Sweeney taking her to the fair, with his daughter and her little girl, moments of happiness, but then taunts from the townspeople, sending children to ask embarrassing questions about her past and the lottery and squandering the money. Is there no hope?
In fact, the film is not a despairing one, not a character going into the depths and stuck there, destroyed. Audiences will be moved by the final sequences, what Leslie does with the help of Sweeney and Royal, and some final moments of truth – and love.
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