I Smile Back

I definitely think this is rather underrated by critics, and certainly perhaps better than the reception shows. I do think the screenplay could have gone further and done better with its character work (as it is, it's a little overly-broad at times). However, the film still works. It works mostly because of Sarah Silverman. She doesn't have a particularly difficult character to work with, but Silverman still shows that she has further chops than what we would have originally thought (perhaps it's even better than Kristin Wiig's first dramatic turn in The Skeleton Twins). Not a must-see by any means, and I wouldn't say Silverman is year-end best (as her SAG nomination indicates). Still a good watch.

What you've heard is correct: Silverman shows proof of talent for dramatic roles as well. I like her comedic style and goofy standoffish stage persona, which got me curious about this film. The story rings true for the likeliness of family environments and the related social issues of prescription drug abuse, street drug use and so on. What I appreciated are both the inevitable scenario that comes to fore once the lifesavers of love and detox aren't enough to keep the protagonist from drowning in her own misery and the limited sympathy that's allowed for said protagonist, who's unwilling to reach for said lifesavers thrown at her, sliding instead into her lonely abyss.

This, although slow at times is a powerful insight into the devastation of mental illness and addiction. I thought the acting was powerful and true to life. The film shows how devastating a childhood loss or event can be and that it scars for life. What may seem like something one can move on from, can take hold of your life due to childhood scars being so deeply embedded. As I watched I couldn't help but think she was the girl who had everything. The beautiful family, the loving husband, the beautiful house and car etc. Never judge a book by its cover. I have experienced this disease in person and found this to shake me right through as it was so true to life. Someone with experience of this disease will find this film rather upsetting and a stark reminder of how important it is to tell your kids you love them and that you will always have their back. If the devastation of addiction doesn't interest you, you may want to skip this one. If you are in recovery...this is a must see!

Laney (Sarah Silverman) is part of what appears to be a wonderful family; a doting husband, two lovely kids living in a large, beautiful home. Those thoughts led me to the truth of it all as, Laney traveled into her personal abyss. The surprise is Silverman's performance. Best known for lighter, comedic fare: "Who's The Caboose?", "School of Rock" and "Wreck It Ralph", Silverman delivers an award worthy performance. I was fixated on her talents displayed here. Who knew that a primarily stand-up comedienne, could play such a difficult role so convincingly. Josh Charles and Thomas Sadowski are adequate in their roles, but this is Silverman's movie. Strictly for adult viewing and highly entertaining for those of us who are able to endure a dark drama, I do recommend "I Smile Back".

Every scene is bad acting lined with every evil spirit the director & cast could muster. Depression, staring, snide attacks, being disconnected with people who are supposed to be family and no one doing anything about it, blank soulless speaking. On top of that you have Josh Charles who thought it'd be great to play an aggressive coward and normalise it, with every line towards his partner, Silverman, as a fake, snide, misogynistic attack. Every scene with energy is a coward acting tough. Silverman plays a depressed version of herself going through the motions and failing to stand up for herself properly. There is nothing for anybody in this movie... And now we know a little bit more about the peple who made it.

"Don't you want to be happy?" Laney Brooks (Silverman) is a mother, wife, and depressed drug addict/alcoholic. She is happy when she is taking care of her kids, but when she is alone she doesn't know how to cope with life and it begins to affect every aspect of her life. She tries rehab and confronting her past in an effort to cure herself. This is not a happy movie, at all. Let me just open with that. Sarah Silverman delivers an Oscar worthy performance and the movie is worth watching just for that. The movie itself though tries to just force its subject down your throat and ends up becoming to "messagey" to have the impact it wants. That is a real problem because if they backed off on trying to show how bad things can get and just relied on Silverman's performance it would have had more of an impact. Overall, a performance that Silverman just nails but a movie that tries too hard to push its agenda, without needing to. I give this a B-.

Sarah Silverman had absolutely no business pulling off the performance she did. I Smile Back follows the story of a tenderly distressed mother who can't seem to fully absorb her childhood troubles. Its astonishing to think of Gena Rowlands' character in John Cassettes' A Women Under the Influence in the same category as this. However, I am bewildered as to why the rating is significantly low on this film. Although there could have been a little more context behind Laney's past, Silverman dealt with what she got and delivered in a way that no one was prepared for. The academy would be inane to omit her of an Oscar nomination.

Every morning Laney Brooks' husband, Bruce, wakes her by saying "Rise and shine, beautiful." When the day before has been uneventful he says "Rise and shine, beautiful." When the night before has been a self-defeating, downward spiral into drug addiction he says "Rise and shine, beautiful." The day after she has violent, adulterous sex with her friend's husband he says "Rise and shine, beautiful." This repetitive, cyclical nature of depression and addiction is at the heart of the new movie I Smile Back, starring Sarah Silverman as Laney, a woman who can't seem to break out of her suburban malaise and fears of failure as a wife and mother. Whatever its faults, I Smile Back is worthy of note for giving Silverman a vehicle to stretch her talents toward the dramatic in a career changing performance that makes me say "Rise and shine, Silverman!"... Check out the full review on David 'n the Dark! https://davidnthedark.wordpress.com/2015/10/31/rise-and-shine- silverman/

I think it might be too easy to throw a bad review at this film; The unknown director, unknown author and lead role played by someone more recognizable for her comedic value than her ability to act - The story itself would be pressed to find an audience to relate with it and the somber tone leaves an impression of negativity that most people don't want in their lives. The film has been jokingly titled "White People Problems" by the internet for focusing on the oh-so-perfect suburbia world. A world without actual problems like having a roof over your head, feeding your children, education, jobs, transportation or many of the other realities just within the United States. Hollywood loves downward spiral films that punch holes in the fabricated perfection of suburban families. In following this cliché they ignore the issues of drug addiction & mental health issues in low-income families. What I call "the real world" of dealing with the same issues, but without the benefit of wealth. One topic in 'I Smile Back' concerned health care and there are powerful stories out there with real people not having the support of family or getting the help they need. In most cases for low-income families they either get misdiagnosed through several doctors or completely written off as drug seekers. Some wondered out-loud why Bruce would even marry such a full-blown narcissist as Laney. While others assumed that Laney "went crazy". Which is another misunderstanding about mental illness: People don't suddenly "go crazy" one day. Outside of environmental issues, there's a world of people born with severe illnesses that listen to their own family complain why they don't simply "get over it". Mental illness is not easy to understand, nor explain. I lived in the shoes of the character Bruce Brooks (Josh Charles) for 2 decades with my own Laney. I can't explain the behavior outside of an easy label. Love & acceptance is the best way to co-exist in such a relationship; Trying to rationalize the poor choices of a bipolar/manic-depressant personality can make you feel like your losing your mind. I noticed the poor communication between Laney & her husband, they were distant. Bruce sought to be oblivious to the bad things Laney did. I'd happen to guess Bruce was trying to maintain his own sense of normality and/or status among his peers by ignoring everything. You can see it in his face as he dropped Laney off at the rehab; He's the type that would see the problem and respond, "Why can't you just get over this?" A lot of the explanations for Laney Brooks can be found in the diagnosis of her son Eli, played wonderfully by Skylar Gaertner. Specifically those nervous ticks found in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder created in-part to make one feel in control of the world around them. I found myself gritting my teeth when Eli's teacher Mr Odesky (Clark Jackson) suggested medication for Eli's anxiety. It bothered me more that Laney seemed accepting of the idea. It was a painful film to watch for me. It made me angry at times, the plot devices frustrated me. I wished the film had Laney's father, Roger (Chris Sarandon) have more in common with Bruce Brooks than Laney Brooks. Not to make lite of the kind of garbage that abandons his own children, but to grant the self-absorbed Laney some form of wake up call. All in all 'I Smile Back' is a movie that was given a lot of heart. I can appreciate that. I can also appreciate Sarah Silverman's performance in playing Laney and the direction of her character was observably interesting. I found myself still calling her Sarah throughout the movie and wonder how effective this story would have been with some unknown actors. It's an okay film. Maybe something to watch if your studying or are interested in mental disorders. Personally, I don't think I could watch it again because it stirs up some painful memories.

The biggest hurdle in Suburban Ennui movies is feeling anything for the protagonist's cushy dilemma, and Silverman, as Laney, aces the role almost within the film's first five minutes. Screw the house, the stable husband (Josh Charles) and her comfortable existence. What Laney wants she won't let herself have even though she wants it with a cringing, painful desperation. Paige Dylan and Amy Koppelman's script, based on Koppelman's novel, is structured in a very effective way, juxtaposing Laney's compulsive, destructive behavior (she drinks, she snorts, she pops pills, she has reckless unprotected sex) with flashbacks that yield more than enough clues to the source of her unhappiness. It's not an operatic descent into hell, but a realistically quiet one. Silverman expertly masks her self-entrapment with a slick façade of perfection only to let it crumble quickly in bursts of smudgy, nasty rage. It's difficult not to overstate the virtuosity of her acting in that there's so much to it, so much that It tells us that even her character is probably not yet aware of. It's a fascinating performance and her best yet. Koppelman and Dylan's script doesn't let her or us off the hook --- ever --- and that may be hard for some people to take. This isn't a film with a neat, clean ending, but after you've seen I Smile Back, you'd be hard pressed to imagine one.