SMASHED
(2012, Blu-ray released March 12, 2013 – MSRP $35.99)
THE FILM:
- “Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Charlie (Aaron Paul, TV’s “Breaking Bad” ) are a young married couple whose bond is built on a mutual love of music, laughter and drinking…especially the drinking. When Kate’s drinking leads her to dangerous places and her job as a school teacher is put into jeopardy, she decides to join AA and get sober. With the help of her new friend and sponsor Jenny (Octavia Spencer, The Help), and the vice principal at her school, the awkward, but well intentioned, Mr. Davies, Kate takes steps toward improving her health and life. Sobriety isn’t as easy as Kate had anticipated. Her new lifestyle brings to the surface a troubling relationship with her mother, facing the lies she’s told her employer (Megan Mullaly TV’s “Parks and Recreation” ) and calls into question whether or not her relationship with Charlie is built on love or just a boozy diversion from adulthood.“
WHO SHOULD BUY:
Smashed is a surprisingly well crafted little substance abuse film sporting some really solid performances. Sadly, try as I might, I found that I couldn’t ever really connect with it in a satisfying way. I have a feeling it’s the “little”.
There’s something diminutive about Smashed aside from it’s very brief 81-minute run time. The issue isn’t that the film’s characters aren’t living grand, epic lives (they’re not) or that they’re not larger than life (but they certainly are not larger than life.) It’s about the way the drama plays out. Though the issues at stake are serious and tragic things occur to the characters through the course of the narrative, the stakes never feel dire. Or, I should say, the stakes never seem dire enough to the couple at the heart of the film to ramp up the conflict. It’s all quite soft and honest and, I guess, fairly real.
But this is a perfect place for Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul to be. They’re both truly wonderful to watch here. These are great roles for them which will, hopefully, lead to more meaty character parts down the line. And if you don’t hold Smashed up to rockier, more edgy substance abuse flicks, you’ll find a lot to like in it.
THE BLU-RAY DISC:
All right, I can tell you all you need to know about the Blu-ray disc with one word – Sony. Yep, this is a Sony release which means it’s pretty much perfect. Smashed was shot digitally so it’s safe to say that most any fault you might with the image is due to the nature of the beast, the way it was lit and shot – slightly glossy and flat without a film-like texture. But overall clean, colourful, detailed and quite vibrant for a drama. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is dialogue heavy but handles itself quite well, opening up whenever provided the opportunity.
There are a few bonus goodies to dig into on the Smashed Blu-ray but little to light your world on fire. The one you’ll want to hit is the feature length commentary with director James Ponsoldt and Winstead. It’s light, friendly and full of anecdotes and production detail. Good stuff. The 12-minute “making of” short isn’t really given much time to dig into details, nor is the 15-minute long Red Carpet and Q&A featurette. The disc also includes over 10-minutes of deleted scenes, the theatrical trailer and previews for other Sony films.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Audio Commentary
- Making Smashed
- Toronto Film Festival Red Carpet and Q&A
- Deleted Scenes
- Smashed Theatrical Trailer
- Previews
