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Down to the Bone (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:13
Fresh:13
Rotten:0
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: A vivid portrayal of the effects of drug abuse that avoids cinematic clichés, Down to the Bone is a winning effort by first-time director Debra Granik and features a breakout performance by Vera Farmiga.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for pervasive drug content, language and some sexuality.
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Nov 25, 2005 Limited
Synopsis: Last year's Sundance Film Festival honored DOWN TO THE BONE with two high-profile, prestigious and extremely competitive awards: Best Director and A Special Jury Prize for acting. A stellar entry... Last year's Sundance Film Festival honored DOWN TO THE BONE with two high-profile, prestigious and extremely competitive awards: Best Director and A Special Jury Prize for acting. A stellar entry in the Dramatic Competition, writer/director Debra Granik, in her feature film debut, and actress Vera Farmiga became the talk of the Festival and the indie film community. In DOWN TO THE BONE, Irene (Vera Farmiga) is a working class mother living in upstate New York. She struggles to keep her marriage together and raise two sons while keeping her cocaine addiction a secret. After a series of nearly fatal mishaps, and finally hoping to make a change in her life, she decides to check herself into a rehab center. She knows kicking the habit would be tough, but the experience proves even more difficult than she could have anticipated. There, she meets and falls in love with a fellow reformed addict (Hugh Dillon). When one of them falls into a relapse with the addiction, their commitment to staying clean - and to each other - shatters. This beautifully wrought film accurately and authentically explores the wrenching road of recovery without ever resorting to histrionics. DOWN TO THE BONE is based upon Debra Granik's 1997 short film, "Snake Feed," which won the Sundance Film Festival's Short Filmmaking Award in 1998. --© Laemmle/Zeller Films [More]
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Hugh Dillon, Clint Jordan, Caridad De La Luz
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Hugh Dillon, Clint Jordan, Caridad De La Luz
Director: Debra Granik
Director: Debra Granik
Producer: Susan Leber
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Reviews for Down to the Bone
This downbeat story of blue-collar drug abuse becomes a moving portrait of people battling their inner demons, thanks to an outstanding acting ensemble.
If there were an ounce of taste left in Hollywood, the magnificent Vera Farmiga would be a front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar.
The film is so pitch perfect and realistic, it seems you are there with these people, watching their lives unfold before you as it happens.
Down to the Bone achieves what only the best independent films have: making life, at its most unvarnished, a journey.
Conventional movies, even independent ones, tend to get histrionic and judgmental about such drug-related setbacks. But Granik's film, though hardly a clinical case study, keeps a measured distance from the heavy-handed or simplistic.
... a stark, realistic portrait of a working-class mother in New York's depressed Ulster County as she tries to battle a drug habit.
Down to the Bone emerges with an aura of authenticity so strong as to be mesmerizing, thanks to a superior script brought to life with infallibly natural performances ...
Unlike most movies about addictions, Down to the Bone doesn't follow the usual, comforting three-act structure -- social user develops a problem, user becomes a desperate addict, user finally gets some help.
First-time feature director's disciplined objectivity is coupled with humanism in this collaboration with a gifted cast and cinematographer.
This film has an ear for the way moms talk to kids, a sensitivity to drug-sweetened intimacies, and an appreciation of the urgent nuance, not just the comedy, of recovery-speak.
For actress Vera Farmiga, Down to the Bone presents her with a breakout role.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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