A Million Little Pieces

I read this book because it was supposed to be a true story and then later found out that it was mostly lies and the author made most of it up. As a work of fiction it is a great book and hopefully the movie will follow the book.

While maybe not always completely successful in conveying its important message, this work wears its heart on its sleeve. At times it's a hard watch, with some slightly over the top details but offers important considerations to all those booked in for serious detox treatment; A: Think seriously about all the challenges, regardless of your biased beliefs.

B: Remember, others before you, have overcome their petty and physical opposition towards the cures outlined stages, and gone on to win the battle - give up and you're lost.

Good performances manage to keep it on target and it's always interesting to see Australian Odessa Young on screen (even though here quite bleak) The co-writing and direction by the co-writer/lead performer's wife is competent and the two eventually manage to make us feel for the subject. Between the above-average cinematography, there's also a hard-working soundtrack helping to move it along. A couple of early, overindulged scenes finally give way to serious outcomes - even if not all as fully desired.

Note: Heavy Language, nudity, drug use.

I wanted to like this, it opens with some pretty nice slomo film work, and looks dark & impressive. I didnt make it to the end however. The characters were a little undercooked and their motivations werent always clear. The romance the lead has didnt seem that convincing. Plus I was really looking forward to seeing Giovanni Ribisi, however he also either had trouble portraying that character, or the writing wasnt right for him. The interactions between him & the lead also seemed forced and these characters seemed to "get" close all of a sudden, without real development of how this occurred. Billy Bob did shine in his role however, and (partially) redeemed this film to me. Its not a bad portrayal of drug issues, ie: it doesnt force the "drugs are bad" rhetoric down your throat - however there are better films out there dealing with these issues

I don't undestand why they decided to make a movie adaptation out of the book instead of the controversy surrounding its publication. That would have been far more interesting. This movie is the poor man's Xavier Dolan film - and even his "artsy" shots are obnoxious enough. I assume they expected this movie to be an award winning project: nudity, check; tears, check; redemption arc, check; artsy shots out of nowhere, check. They even throw a couple of scientologists to the mix! Overall its plot is as basic and predictable as you would expect it to be had it been made during the 90s.

If seeing how drugs/alcohol can destroy a person then this movie seems to do the job well. As to treatment centers it was a bit more theatrical, but somewhat useful anyway.