Down to the Bone

Dir: Debra Granik

2004

****

I have to say I feel a little sorry for Debra Granik. Her 2004 feature debut should have put her on the map, and it did to some degree, but it will be remembered most for Vera Farmiga’s utterly compelling performance. Her 2010 follow up Winter’s Bone drew huge amounts of praise but again, it was the making of Jennifer Lawrence, rather than herself. I like to think people know her now after the brilliant Leave No Trace but who knows, either way, she’s a phenomenal director who deserves more credit. Visual flare aside, what really makes her a great director is her generosity and the way she allows each actor to flourish. This is why people remember the performances and the actors, rather than her, and its that kind of integrity that the industry needs more of. I’ve never directed a film, so that might sound condescending, but it annoys me because I think artists such as Granik are woefully overlooked, even though they make great film after great film. Down to the Bone tells the tale of Irene Morrison (Vera Farmiga), a working class mother of two boys, who lives in Upstate New York and works as a supermarket cashier. We learn early on that she is keeping a cocaine addiction a secret from her family. Much of the film is fly on the wall family stuff; her eldest son pesters her to buy him a pet snake for his birthday; her husband builds them a second bathroom; the marriage is largely sexless etc. On the night of Halloween, Irene takes her kids trick-or-treating and, at one of the houses they visit, she meets Bob (Hugh Dillon), a nurse, and there is a connection. The next day, Irene takes the kids to a reptile shop to buy a snake, but finds that they don't have enough money for one. While her boys wait in the car, Irene visits her dealer, asking him for another fix, but he refuses since she hasn't been paying for the last couple of weeks. At work, Irene contemplates taking money from the cash register. She then goes back to her dealer with Ben's birthday money given to her from her mother-in-law, but the dealer refuses to take it. We follow her day to day life as she juggles normal life with a clear craving for drugs. At a support meeting about cravings, she meets fellow addict Lucy (Caridad de la Luz), and befriends her. While at the facility, Irene again encounters Bob. Before she leaves, Bob visits with a book that helped him during his quitting phase, and offers her his support. At Irene's first Narcotics Anonymous meeting, a man celebrates one year of abstinence. In the following weeks, Irene finds it difficult to stay clean when her friends use drugs around her. One day at work, she is called into the manager's office. She is told her usual fast work has slowed and she admits her past drug, proclaiming it was the drugs that helped her work so quickly. Her honesty costs her and she is subsequently fired. Lucy suggests they start a cleaning business in order to gain money, to which Irene agrees. On the way to her next NA meeting, Irene offers to give Bob a ride and the pair begin an affair. Bob then takes her to a snake breeder so she can purchase one for Ben. The night the two become intimate, Bob excuses himself to the bathroom. Irene then walks in to find him shooting up. Furious at his hypocrisy, she argues with him, kicks him out but ends up using his drugs and the pair later reconcile. After taking drugs in Bob's car one night, the two are pulled over by the police. They are both arrested and detained when an officer finds a drug burner on the dashboard and a half-ounce of heroin. A lawyer briefs Irene on her best sentencing option: if she pleads guilty, she must commit to 50 individual counselling sessions, 100 group counselling sessions, and 250 NA meetings a year; he informs her that if she screws up, she'll be sentenced to several years incarceration in a state prison. When she arrives home, she admits her affair to Steve, who tells her to move out. Lucy gives her a place to crash, although she's angry with Irene for flaking out on a job. Irene eventually finds herself a house and gets some custody of her kids. After another of Irene's Narcotics meetings, Bob shows up to apologize for getting her caught up in his mess and subsequently avoiding her calls. Irene forgives him and he begins to stay at her house. Meanwhile, Bob is using, but intends to start going to support meetings again. His dealer tries to persuade him to sell some pills, but he refuses. Irene realizes he's been getting high by combining his prescribed methadone and other drugs, and as a result could endanger her kids; she confronts him and silently asks him to leave – the first step, we hope, of her full recovery. It’s a very gritty and realistic drama that shows that there is no glamour to drug addiction and many addicts lead normal lives. Addiction ruins families and relationships and makes bad people of good folk, and this is what Done to the Bone shows perfectly. Stark and powerful, as it should be.