I'm not entirely sure what to make of this one. It did captivate me until the end, it's a decent movie. Acting was decent - Mila Kunis was actually better than I had expected, although a bit more subtlety would maybe have been better on her character, especially in terms of her look which seemed a bit theatrical. The movie is definitely more lighthearted than the trailer makes it out to be, by the way, which was a good thing in my eyes as I expected pure (melo)drama all the way. As another review stated though, the trailer is basically a summary of the movie otherwise (though less so in tone). Trailers tend to do that though and it's very annoying.
The movie is relatively short and much more psychological than very plot-driven. Still in my opinion there were some inconsistencies in the psychology, which almost read as plotholes. It's mostly about the inconsistency in the mother's actions. Although I do understand they were trying to convey the reality that there is not much consistency in how anyone would deal with a loved one (let alone your child) self-destructing like this, and it's mostly ups and downs, mindtricks and manipulation - this movie takes place in a very short period of time, and in that timeframe I found the mother's actions to be kind of confusing in combination with each other.
The scene were Molly fakes a phone call from the clinic about her appointment being rescheduled, and the subsequent weekend she spends at her ex's place was weird to me. Her mother had been watching her like a hawk for days, even pacing closely behind Molly while she was faking her phone call. Then her mother immediately voiced very logical suspicions (which later turned out to be the truth) about the realness of the phone call, but still let Molly storm off to her ex's place who had recently asked her to score drugs for her (like, one day prior). Ok, so I guess she couldn't necessarily have stopped Molly from leaving, but WHY didn't she call the clinic the next day to try and confirm this rescheduling? If it HAD been true, would that not have put her mind at ease a bit at least? And why does she frantically try to get a hold of both Molly and Molly's ex, but only by texting and calling, and not by driving over? But then she does drive over to Molly's dad's house for some reason? It's not even just Molly who was involved here - it was also her grandchildren. Just didn't really make sense to me.
Another thing: why is the mother so overly optimistic, as if they're going to live happily ever after, after Molly finally got her shot even though they both knew she had lied about having been sober long enough. The doctor literally told them that the reason she had to be sober for a week was because otherwise the shot could have life-threatening consequences. So why didn't they discuss that risk more, and why did they happily walk to the car and was it then shown as some sort of plottwist when Molly went into acute withdrawal? Didn't they literally know that that was a strong possibility all along? Confused me too.
The pregnancy/adoption story thrown in there was a bit random, not sure what that was meant to achieve or add to the story to be honest.
Lastly, a bit more backstory on Molly's ex/the father of her children would have been good. Now I guess we learn he's low-key a drugabuser as well (which kind of makes sense given that Molly would've been in a relationship with him as an active addict, like we are told she has been since she was a teenager), who asks her to get him drugs as soon as she gets out of rehab, and even goes out with her the day after she was meant to get her shot to get high together? Sounds like he was in pretty deep as well then. Why does he then have custody over the children by himself and is this not really addressed, at least after she gets clean?
Things like that were frustrating throughout the movie, although constant frustration and false hope is probably what they were trying to portray - it could have been shown in other ways than these ways which just seemed too nonsensical.
A bit more background on Molly herself would be good too, like maybe a couple of flashbacks or dialogue about the early stages of her addiction. Now it is just referred to a couple of times in a rushed way. However, I can appreciate that Molly does not necessarily have a crazy traumatic backstory to explain away her addiction issues. The idea that people can just be wired differently is refreshing in an era of, say, 13 Reasons Why type hypes where every act of self-destruction or violence is explained super neatly - although the opposite idea is pushed a bit too hard in this movie too. In reality the truth probably lingers somewhere in between nature and nurture. That whole dialogue scene in which it was (over)stated that basically no one could have done anything to prevent this, was a bit too on the nose and imposing. They could have either fleshed that out with more of a backstory or just left it in the middle more.
Very watchable film, touching at times, with good pacing and a good overall tone: bearable to watch because it's not an extremely heavy dramafest. Still though, for such a "small" plot, it left too many questions, and presumably not the questions they wanted to leave the audience with.
The movie is relatively short and much more psychological than very plot-driven. Still in my opinion there were some inconsistencies in the psychology, which almost read as plotholes. It's mostly about the inconsistency in the mother's actions. Although I do understand they were trying to convey the reality that there is not much consistency in how anyone would deal with a loved one (let alone your child) self-destructing like this, and it's mostly ups and downs, mindtricks and manipulation - this movie takes place in a very short period of time, and in that timeframe I found the mother's actions to be kind of confusing in combination with each other.
The scene were Molly fakes a phone call from the clinic about her appointment being rescheduled, and the subsequent weekend she spends at her ex's place was weird to me. Her mother had been watching her like a hawk for days, even pacing closely behind Molly while she was faking her phone call. Then her mother immediately voiced very logical suspicions (which later turned out to be the truth) about the realness of the phone call, but still let Molly storm off to her ex's place who had recently asked her to score drugs for her (like, one day prior). Ok, so I guess she couldn't necessarily have stopped Molly from leaving, but WHY didn't she call the clinic the next day to try and confirm this rescheduling? If it HAD been true, would that not have put her mind at ease a bit at least? And why does she frantically try to get a hold of both Molly and Molly's ex, but only by texting and calling, and not by driving over? But then she does drive over to Molly's dad's house for some reason? It's not even just Molly who was involved here - it was also her grandchildren. Just didn't really make sense to me.
Another thing: why is the mother so overly optimistic, as if they're going to live happily ever after, after Molly finally got her shot even though they both knew she had lied about having been sober long enough. The doctor literally told them that the reason she had to be sober for a week was because otherwise the shot could have life-threatening consequences. So why didn't they discuss that risk more, and why did they happily walk to the car and was it then shown as some sort of plottwist when Molly went into acute withdrawal? Didn't they literally know that that was a strong possibility all along? Confused me too.
The pregnancy/adoption story thrown in there was a bit random, not sure what that was meant to achieve or add to the story to be honest.
Lastly, a bit more backstory on Molly's ex/the father of her children would have been good. Now I guess we learn he's low-key a drugabuser as well (which kind of makes sense given that Molly would've been in a relationship with him as an active addict, like we are told she has been since she was a teenager), who asks her to get him drugs as soon as she gets out of rehab, and even goes out with her the day after she was meant to get her shot to get high together? Sounds like he was in pretty deep as well then. Why does he then have custody over the children by himself and is this not really addressed, at least after she gets clean?
Things like that were frustrating throughout the movie, although constant frustration and false hope is probably what they were trying to portray - it could have been shown in other ways than these ways which just seemed too nonsensical.
A bit more background on Molly herself would be good too, like maybe a couple of flashbacks or dialogue about the early stages of her addiction. Now it is just referred to a couple of times in a rushed way. However, I can appreciate that Molly does not necessarily have a crazy traumatic backstory to explain away her addiction issues. The idea that people can just be wired differently is refreshing in an era of, say, 13 Reasons Why type hypes where every act of self-destruction or violence is explained super neatly - although the opposite idea is pushed a bit too hard in this movie too. In reality the truth probably lingers somewhere in between nature and nurture. That whole dialogue scene in which it was (over)stated that basically no one could have done anything to prevent this, was a bit too on the nose and imposing. They could have either fleshed that out with more of a backstory or just left it in the middle more.
Very watchable film, touching at times, with good pacing and a good overall tone: bearable to watch because it's not an extremely heavy dramafest. Still though, for such a "small" plot, it left too many questions, and presumably not the questions they wanted to leave the audience with.