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And voila! Kate stops drinking. No withdrawal, no depression. Well, she has one slip, but the next time we see her after that, she's receiving her one-year cake to celebrate her sobriety and pondering the quiet, dry life that (hopefully) awaits her. The obligatory rift develops with her still-raging husband; they fell in love getting hammered together, how could they possibly survive as a couple if only one of them is still drinking? Paul does what he can with an underwritten role: His character is depicted as little more than an immature, hard-partying trust-fund kid, so it's hard to feel emotionally invested in whether he and Kate can make it work. Similarly, Offerman plays a level-headed, loyal friend, which makes some weirdly inappropriate comments to Kate seem to come out of nowhere, simply for the sake of an awkward laugh. Faring the worst of all in just one scene is Mary Kay Place as Kate's lonely, long-drinking mother, who functions simply as someone to blame for her daughter's genetic predisposition toward alcoholism. Still, an unadorned Winstead dives headlong into all the highs and lows required of her
-- she's as much of a wreck happily singing karaoke as she is urinating in the middle of a liquor store. She seems more game than the film itself is in exposing deeper truths. "Smashed," a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated R for alcohol abuse, language, some sexual content and brief drug use. Running time: 85 minutes. Two stars out of four. ___ Motion Picture Association of America rating definition for R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
[Associated
Press;
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