A good movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but I have to admit that I was quite eager to see Felix van Groeningen’s first English-speaking directing effort. To be honest, even if it was definitely not bad at all, I still think they struggled to bring something new to the genre. Furthermore, I wish they gave more details on how Nic actually ended up in this position. Indeed, they spent the whole duration showing that his father was a rather sweet guy with a stable lifestyle and household and that he really cared for his son. The only explanation might be that he might have felt somehow as an outcast following the divorce of his parents but it was not developed enough to really explain his craving. Anyway, the main focus of this movie was above all to show the devastating impact such drug addiction might have on the relatives, even if they are loving and have all the patience in the world. Indeed, if one of your kids become such a drug addict, it must be the stuff of nightmare for any decent parent and the hopelessness and powerlessness of the father was quite heart-breaking to behold. Another thing I did appreciate with this movie was how they displayed that the path to recovery is so slow, so difficult, it might take some years, and, in many cases, many drug victims don’t actually make it or never manager to recover. It’s really something else than what you get to see, for example, in ‘Trainspotting’, when Renton shuts himself off in his room for a couple of days and comes out clean and pretty much in control. Finally, there is no denying that Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet both delivered some solid performances, especially Chalamet who was almost unrecognizable when he was under the influence. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a solid drama and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.