Drug is the love

The pain of addiction cuts deep in Down to the Bone.

By Cheryl Eddy

AS IRENE, Down to the Bone's sad-eyed addict who always seems to be teetering on the edge of a total breakdown, Vera Farmiga – previously seen as a brainwashed soldier's dream girl in 2004's The Manchurian Candidate – is as heartbreaking as she is naturalistic. Remember Jennifer Aniston as The Good Girl's working-class protagonist, a woman whose nowhere life was somehow at odds with the actor's expensively shaped eyebrows? There's none of that vanity in Farmiga, who conveys the pain of addiction, and its ever-spiraling outward effects, with minimal dialogue and zero faux-poetic voice-overs.

In snowy upstate New York, Irene toils as a grocery checker – a mind-numbing job she prefers to undertake with her mind literally numbed. She loves her two small boys, but the passion's long gone from her marriage to Steve (Clint Jordan). Her main concerns include slogging through the day and scrounging her next little bit of coke; when first we meet her, she's so in debt to her dealer that he cuts her off, despite her trying to score with her son's birthday check from Grandma. It's a gray, frustrating life, shot with real-life intensity on digital video at real-life locations, with nonprofessional actors filling out the film's supporting roles. Think A&E's reality downer Intervention, not the colorful freak-outs of Requiem for a Dream.

Before long, without any particular incident to inspire her, she's in rehab, where she reconnects with Bob (Hugh Dillon), a nurse and former addict she'd met while taking her kids trick-or-treating on Halloween. (Again, rehab is portrayed as a realistic, unglamorous place – no Sandra Bullock in 28 Days high jinks here.) Without achieving any kind of discernable breakthrough, Irene drifts back into the real world, tentatively sober, and her frustrations promptly escalate. At the grocery store, her managers first reprimand her for her sluggish recent performance, then force her to admit she used to come to work high – and finally, patronizingly, fire her for using drugs on the job: "Irene, you know our policy." She finds a new, equally unrewarding job cleaning houses with rehab pal Lucy (Caridad de la Luz).

That Irene won't stay clean – though she bravely abstains when her Thanksgiving guests indulge in a postmeal snort – is pretty obvious. Her extramarital attachment to Bob is the only bright spot in her life, and it's soon apparent he's not the savior she'd imagined he might be. Turns out the dreary routine of drug addition, especially in a town where there's really not much else to take up time, is nearly impossible to break.

Director and cowriter Debra Granik expanded her short 1997 film, Snake Feed, into Down to the Bone (which won awards for directing and Farmiga's performance at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival). Unlike other short films that seem stretched to fit feature-length remakes, Down to the Bone transcends a simple story with authentic small-town textures (American flags are everywhere, from cakes to curtains) and performances that never condescend to or stereotype its working-class characters. This is clearly a breakout role for Farmiga, who has several high-profile films – including Martin Scorsese's 2006 release, The Departed – on her upcoming slate, but Dillon and de la Luz also leave lasting impressions.

Down to the Bone's version of a metaphor is a stark one. Buoyed by her budding romance with Bob, Irene impulsively buys her sons a longed-for snake. Some time later, when all of life seems about to crumble, the camera lingers as a mouse is dropped into the snake's cage and quickly devoured. It's a stark moment that encompasses many of the film's themes – including, maybe most obviously, the survival of the fittest. Though Down to the Bone ends without certain resolve (again, no Sandra Bullock finale), Granik does allow Irene to make a crucial decision that seems, at least for the moment, to set her on the right path.

There's a substantial chance this bleakly honest work will get lost in the flood of holiday releases, which is a shame, though somewhat understandable. Anyone who's eagerly anticipating Cheaper by the Dozen 2 may not take to Down to the Bone – a film that offers a grim reminder that it's not always a wonderful life, after all.

'Down to the Bone' opens Fri/16 at the Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th St., SF. $5-$8. (415) 863-1087. See Rep Clock, in Film listings, for showtimes.