Down to the Bone

Down to the Bone is the best rehab movie I've ever seen, principally because it avoids the foibles of most Hollywood productions. In other words, unlike movies like Clean and Sober and 28 Days, we don't have a high profile actor playing a high profile character going through fake-feeling rehab sessions acted more with an eye toward entertainment than emotional truth. Instead, Down to the Bone is an unflinching look into the life of a paycheck-to-paycheck supermarket clerk attempting to kick her addiction to cocaine in impoverished upstate New York.

Irene (Vera Farmiga) scrapes by in Ulster County, New York with her husband -- a recreational drug user -- and two young sons. When she can no longer pay her dealer to feed her cocaine addiction, she gloms one son's birthday money to feed her habit. Perhaps realizing that she's gone too far, Irene checks into a rehab clinic, attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and strikes up a precarious relationship with Bob (Hugh Dillon), a male nurse and fellow recovering addict. Besides that basic outline, there's not much plot in this skillful character study that is unencumbered by the peripheral concerns that dissipated the effect of last year's Little Fish.

This is the feature film debut of director Debra Granik and it's essentially an extension of her 1997 short doc Snake Feed, which is included as an extra on the DVD. Unsurprisingly, the result is about as verite as it gets with Granik mixing unknown actors and non-professionals, filming in hardscrabble upstate New York locations and shooting the film in low-grade digital video that makes the film feel as if Irene is a real person, who had a friend follow her around and document her everyday life.

As Irene, Farmiga is nothing short of a revelation, as she juggles her character's desperation and desolation with moments or sarcasm and brutal honesty. It's easy to see how Martin Scorsese saw this film and felt that she could do equally well on the other side of the therapy table in The Departed. The supporting cast in also up to the task and the dialogue they're given -- no doubt informed by Granik's research -- has an authenticity that makes the scenes involving rehab, Irene's job, and her heartbreaking interactions with the legal system feel like the real deal, rather than a glossy approximation.

The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital stereo sound. In addition to Snake Feed, there's a lively commentary track with Granik and Farmiga, in which they discuss the film's authenticity, including the fact that an actual drug counselor and lawyer play those roles in the movie. -- Colin Miller