I went into this movie blind… just saw it at the theater and decided I still have a credit on the recently renewed AMC Stubs card, so lets give it a shot. I spent an inordinate amount of time saying, “Is that Glenn Close?” and “Who is this blonde girl? She sounds so familiar”… only to realize in the very last scene that it was Mila Kunis. I should be flogged repeatedly about the face and head for not recognizing her… but, to be fair, she was blonde and had on a ton of junkie makeup. Ahem. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyhow, yes, this is a movie about a junkie in recovery. Mila Kunis plays the daughter of Glenn Close who she goes to for help with her most recent attempt to get clean. The mother isn’t having it… she’s heard this story before… but eventually she relents. The daughter is then offered a drug that will deactivate her ability to get high… but she can only take it in four days and she has to stay clean. So the move follows the family over those four days… four very difficult days full of shouting, doubt, disbelief, and regrets.

I’d say this is primarily an actor’s movie (whether you recognize the actors or not… DERP!). The two leading ladies do a very good job with sometimes hysterical and occasionally aggravating parts. It’s one of those movies where you just kind of want the actors to shut up and stop yelling at each other. But, to be fair, they are less shouty than similar movies and there are more attempts to unite and reconcile than usual. Maybe it works better because of the limited scope of the movie and because we don’t have to see the previous ten years of addiction and endless cycles of getting better and falling apart again.

So that’s a net positive… it’s not exactly like all the other addict movies. But it’s still an addict movie and ultimately one that doesn’t say a lot different about the affliction. And it didn’t quite need to be as long as it was… maybe shave a good twenty minutes off the saggy middle part of the flick and wind up with a slightly more streamlined story.

But it’s not DOA… there’s some quality acting and it somewhat avoids some of the usual bases these types of films hit. Not a great movie and certainly verging more towards middling. But it’s an honest try.

Score: 72