Down to the Bone

I saw this because I enjoyed the intense experience of Debra Granik's more recent film, "Winter's Bone". This film, similarly titled "Down to the Bone", covers somewhat the same emotional range. It is a very bleak story, but not entirely the most accomplished one. The problem with attempting an unpredictable story of addiction is in following the predictable life of an addict. This film is neither complex enough or well executed enough to really give us a new way of seeing things. Better cinematography could have helped. Using very cheap digital equipment (though probably more high tech as of 2004), Granik and cinematographer Michael McDonough take "Down to the Bone" in a more vérité-style direction. But the production values are low and poor even by normal documentary standards. This is a style that would only have great merit if this truly was a documentary, and not a dramatic film. The use of a soundtrack and other cinematic devices detracts from any possible grittiness that could have added to the feel.

The truth and power lies in the acting, as understated as it is here. It's refreshing to see human lives without a lot of exaggeration or demonstrative emoting. Vera Farmiga is the best thing going here, and I found her style compelling. The other performances are all good, and never feel any less than real. In the end, something about this film feels unfinished. Debra Granik has gone on to do a much better picture with "Winter's Bone". This is in interesting starting place, but it just isn't enough more than that.

Farmiga in one of her earlier works (and the earliest work I've ever seen from her) is just mesmerizing. At this point to rave about her is to say the expected, but she plays a different sort of character in this one, not quite something I'd seen her do before and so she does things differently but also is fearless in a very compromising, familiar way. She's riveting to watch, and that's the beauty of her acting in pretty much everything I see her in. The supporting cast also does some fine work, but no one could hold a candle to Farmiga, or even try to really. Also interesting to see Debra Granik from Winter's Bone and how she grew to become an even better filmmaker.

'Down to the Bone' is a mirror depiction of the lower-to-middle class struggle to keep clean while trying to overcome the perils of poverty and raise a family. It is not your typical run-of-the-mill addiction story either, revealing the darker sides of the problem and focusing on the lives it so often can tear apart. Vera Farmiga was the shining star in this role as Irene, a mother of two trying to keep her cocaine addiction a secret and save a marriage on the rocks. At 'Sundance' Vera took home 'The Special Jury Prize' for her performance and Director Debra Granik won the 'Director's Award.' It's no wonder that Martin Scorsese went out of his way to get her for her upcoming role in "The Departed." She is and will be a great actress in Hollywood for years to come. I look forward to her success in the future.

I had the opportunity to see DOWN TO THE BONE off Netflix. I was really looking forward to it. I think Vera Farmiga is a very talented performer and heard the raves. Unfortunately, the decision to shoot this story on a PD-150 really killed it for me. I saw the short SNAKE FEED and felt 16 was a much better medium. Or maybe I wished Debra Granik had taken a different visual DV approach. I'm not quite sure. But I didn't find the cinematography all that breathtaking. Some reviewers call it gritty - I call it bland. Still, even with that aside, I felt the story moves a little slow and is also mettled with structural issues. The snake motif was cliché in my books. Nonetheless, Vera is great and definitely makes this one worth watching.

I had the opportunity to see this film again at the Florida Film Festival (after having seen it screened at Sundance), and I have to say even though I was watching the film for a 2nd time, I still found myself completely engaged in the narrative. The film was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature. At times, I nearly forgot that I was watching a film. Vera Farmiga gives a powerful and evocative performance, which must rank among the best in her career. Down to the Bone seems rooted in the cinematic schools of Cinema Verite and Neo-Realism, and the Director, Debra Granik, obviously seems devoted to the idea of making a film without the usual Hollywood bells and whistles. So, the film depicts the bleakness of drug addiction, but without sensationalizing it with the usual tropes: Overdoses, guns, car chases, etc...

The end of the film is left ambiguous, which forces the filmviewer to forego the simplicities of a stock ending; the audience is given the ability to draw their own conclusions. Your choice--does the film have a happy ending or not? Of course, this is not too dissimilar to the dilemmas that people face in real life.

This film is certainly not for everyone. It demands the focus and attention of the filmgoer. As such, Down to the Bone is geared more to the committed and sophisticated cinema enthusiast. The film features a minimalist soundtrack, from which it is difficult to draw the obvious emotive clues. The cinematography is original, as the viewer is exposed to a seemingly endless palette of grays. However, it is not an "easy" film to watch--there is no "eye candy" for the viewer.

Debra Granik's Feature Film Directoral debut shows tremendous promise, and I look forward to her future projects. I rate this film as very good: a 9 out of 10. Frankly, I'm at a loss in understanding why a dozen of IMDB users have rated this film just as a "2". Can the Film Juries at Sundance and Florida be so off the mark? I guess that the cliche is true: there really is no accounting for taste!