When I saw the trailer to SMASHED, something in Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s eyes told me I had to see it. I should normally have shied away from a film that appeared to be about alcoholism and its destructive effects, fearing the oversimplification and moralism with which our culture tends to address the issue, or a wallowing in rankness that is meant to shock. SMASHED turns out to be subtler than the formulae.

It does not invite wallowing, and comprehends a range of behaviors from “drinking too much” to “having a problem” to “alcoholism”, and their contingency in respect to culture, career, and personal circumstance. Although it is about a life and an enabling relationship that contribute to its coming apart, SMASHED is neither morally condemnatory nor psychologically reductionist. The woman that Winstead plays could probably have wine with meals, beer at lunch, and the occasional cocktail, if she had a different job (she is a schoolteacher), didn’t have to drive (this is LA), and was married to someone else (he is a musician for whom drink is part-and-parcel of his bohemianism).

That fine line is one that not every actor could walk, drunk or sober. But Winstead’s acting is perfect pitch, a rare amalgam of the unforced and the tour de force. It is not just the moment-to-moment truth that she brings to an exceptionally well-written role, but a presence that is impossible to shake, which stays with you like someone you have met, and will never stop remembering.

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