****REPOSTED FROM THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH NEW COMMENTS AND EDITS****
Emotional, powerful and a bit terrifying, as if this were the cinematic version of a train wreck.
Anne Hathaway was really excellent here. But I suspect there's a bit of an easy avenue when you're playing a person that's totally fractured and has little involvement with the real world. You could see the derangement and what appeared to be sociopathy in her eyes frequently in the film, particularly in those scenes where she's having to confront what her addictions have cost her. Granted, I'm pretty sure that she's still desperately trying to prove that she's not the girl who did The Princess Diaries any more... and clearly that's true, but she doesn't need to underline that quite so much at this point.
The cast is moderately good and they carry off a rather odd story line well. I'm not sure why someone would write about a woman getting out of rehab after long years of family-obliterating addiction only days before her sister's wedding… but the dysfunction and the drama are heady things. Periodically, I felt like I was intruding on this family's grief.
Periodically I felt like I'd fallen into The Young and the Restless, and not on a good day. While I think Hathaway was good in the role, it's hard to like the chaos-centric role she plays. It's not very often when I think the heroine of any story needs to be beaten with a stick, but I felt that way here.
The entirety of the back story is pretty unpleasant, and dredges up that wonderful family stuff that only seems to be brought up on public holidays and special events… like the wedding.
