To Leslie Review
9/10
Any film that portrays someone living on the fringes of society is navigating the tricky territory of authenticity. If you haven’t gone through the kind of turmoil your character lives with, how do you capture their world in a way that feels genuine and respectful? That is the challenge that any writer/director must face if they decide to take on a film like To Leslie. I am not familiar with the previous work of the director Michael Morris and the writer Ryan Binaco. From what I know, it was based on Binaco’s real mother. I didn’t know that when I watched the film.
Both he and Morris did a wonderful job with this film. It achieves something that not many people can create. The world in the film feels lived in, not artificial in the slightest. To Leslie is about a woman, Leslie (Andrea Riseborough), who wins the lottery and soon squanders all the money on booze and drugs. The film starts with news footage covering her jubilation at winning the money. Her son is with her and there is a feeling that life could have gone so much better for her. Right after this glimmer of hope has passed, we cut ahead six years to her unfortunate reality.
Leslie is destitute and nomadic, never staying in one place for very long. She is perpetually without a permanent home to call her own. After getting kicked out of a motel, she reconnects with her son James (Owen Teague) who is now 20 and has not seen her for a long time. There is a palpable tension between them. Leslie loves her son, but she knows her unstable decisions caused their estrangement. James knows that she is a mess, but he lets her stay with him until she can get back on her feet.
The film could have stuck with this dynamic and play it out with them reforming their bond throughout the film. Instead, Leslie throws away this generosity when she steals money from James’ roommate to buy more booze and gets sent away by James who cannot deal with her drinking and lying. There is a desperate tenderness between them that Leslie wants to foster, but her addiction dominates her spirit and she feels unable to fight it. She is sent away to stay with James’ grandmother Nancy (Allison Janney) and Nancy’s boyfriend Dutch (Stephen Root.)
Nancy and Dutch are well aware of how Leslie ruined her life and burned bridges with her family. Nancy resents what she did to James and is reluctant to keep her in the house. Eventually, the inevitable happens and Leslie is kicked out and back on the streets again. She ends up sleeping next to a motel, where she is discovered by one of the proprietors, Sweeney (Marc Maron), who orders her to leave. She soon returns to collect her suitcase and the good hearted Sweeney offers her a job as a cleaner. The other proprietor, Royal (Andre Royo), is cold towards her. She does not fully commit to the job and routinely wakes up late. Sweeney is a good man who tries to support her and help give her some stability. Here is where the film truly blossoms. I was already engrossed in her journey, but her dynamic with Sweeney and her growth toward recovery gave the film a soulful focus that I haven’t seen often with stories like this.
There have been countless films made about addiction and recovery. Some like the hilarious Peter O’Toole film My Favorite Year veer more into the comedic arena to make the disease more palatable. Others go in the exact opposite direction like in John Cassavetes wonderful film Opening Night, with the brilliant Gena Rowlands. That is one of my personal favorites. The pinnacle of films about alcoholics has to be the Mike Figgis classic Leaving Las Vegas, with incredible performances by Nicolas Cage and Elizabeth Shue. To Leslie gets close to approaching the lofty heights of those last two films, but it wouldn’t be fair to compare it.
The film takes an entirely different approach to showing someone dealing with alcoholism. Now, I have no real experience with this condition since I don’t drink myself, but I have certainly been around plenty of people who do consume copious amounts. Some could be classified as alcoholics, though they likely wouldn’t want to admit that. So, even though I don’t have a personal background with booze, I can still tell when a film comes from a real place. To Leslie is an exploration of her life and recovery without judgment. It shows you her struggles and hardships without pointing fingers.
All the performances in the film are exceptional. I have considered Andrea Riseborough to be one of the best actresses around for ages. I remember first seeing her in the 2010 remake of Brighton Rock. While I don’t love that film, I found her performance captivating. She is perfect for the role of Leslie. Often with British actors, you can hear their real accent creeping into their attempts at sounding American. Southern accents are especially difficult and tend to sound over the top. Here, she disappears completely into the role. I wasn’t watching her playing Leslie; I was seeing Leslie. It is easily my favorite performance of the year. It is remarkable how she can express such depths of emotion with just her eyes and mannerisms.
Marc Maron is also fantastic as Sweeney. I have been listening to his podcast since 2011, so I am always glad to see him in film and TV. He brings a world weary sensitivity to his performance and has great chemistry with Riseborough. Allison Janney is always wonderful in anything, so even though she wasn’t in the film much, she still brought the Nancy character to vivid life like she always does. Same with Stephen Root as Dutch. Both are jaded in their feelings toward Leslie, but they still hold up a smidgen of hope that she can one day get back on her feet.
That is what separates To Leslie from other tales of addiction. It is not a macabre display of humanity at its most dire and desperate. It is a story of a person out of control and trying to get back on the road; an honest and compassionate look at a damaged person who slowly learns how to fix herself. She goes through trials and tribulations, and there are numerous times when I was genuinely worried that she wouldn’t make it through. To Leslie can be a difficult watch, especially if you have any history with addiction. I think it is easily one of the best films of 2022.
