On the brink of death, a young alcoholic and drug dependent is sent to rehab to confront his addictions but also the demons inside him.
Realistic enough approach with no easy ways out. The opening sequence tells it all. It is the alpha and the omega of life as an addict. The beginning of life’s end as we know it. But the addict doesn’t. Not yet. Not until they die.
Writer/director Sam Taylor-Johnson introduces James’ personal calamity in a pretty graphic way, but she clearly makes her point. Upon making it, though, she focuses on the calamity’s solution, the rehab, and sinks her teeth in it. The film’s strong suit is that it doesn’t make it easy, neither for the addicts involved nor for the audience. The visuals are visceral and don’t hold back because the narrative doesn’t. It is restricted as it starts from the end. The solution’s unbearable, soul-destroying strain starts unfolding the problem, in glimpses, backwards. Taylor-Johnson uses the days of addiction as a means to delay the resolution. Every time the audience thinks that James is making a step forward, she brings the past to the foreground as a moment of realisation that it will not be as easy as we would expect. Alas, we get to witness James making two steps backwards instead.
As for writer/actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson, admittedly, he has come a long way. From Kick-Ass (2010) to today, he’s proved to be a diverse actor who puts heart and soul into everything he’s been in, and A Million Little Pieces is no exception. My only distraction with portraying James Frey is that his physique doesn’t match a drug addict’s physique, so chances are that he didn’t want to give it up for the role – maybe lose a couple of pounds. His acting is strong, and he goes the extra mile on camera. Beside him, you can find David Dastmalchian, Billy Bob Thornton – shocking to see him being the sober one – as his mentor, and Odessa Young as James’ fellow messed up passenger in this horrendous journey. Giovani Ribisi deserves a special mention, for he keeps surprising everyone with his diverse performances. Particularly here, the things he says and does are shocking and add to the situation’s decadence. Combining the two sequences, the one in the shower and the other handing over his daughter’s number to James, his journey, with the end remaining unknown, is still complete.
Overall, I felt for James’ journey despite the controversy surrounding the book after the real James Frey told the truth about it (I’m not going to go into it). It is one hell of a journey – or, more accurately, one journey through hell that definitely raises awareness.
I very much hope you enjoy it, as well as this festive period.
P.S. Juliette Lewis and Charlie Hunnam are in it as well, but I found their presence indifferent, so I’ll refer to them when I have something nice to say.
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
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