Andrew Riseborough in To Leslie. Courtesy of the South by Southwest Film Festival.
To Leslie gets incredibly far on Andrea Riseborough's watershed performance in the titular role. The movie's depiction of alcoholism is raw and unflinching — until it isn't. What begins as a deep exploration of regret, addiction, and reckoning with the past lightens to a familiar feel-good story of redemption that doesn't feel completely earned. Still, To Leslie finds the winning numbers to get you to feel something.
To Leslie is playing at the 2022 South by Southwest Film Festival.
At last call on one of the many nights that Leslie (Andrea Riseborough) spends on a bender in the local bar the jukebox starts to play “Are You Sure” by Willie Nelson. He croons out the question, “are you sure that this is where you want to be?” We don't get to know Leslie before she wins $160k in the lottery. We don't even get to know her immediately after. We catch up with her six years later — broke, homeless, and fully in the throes of alcoholism. Screenwriter Ryan Binaco takes a risk to forego the opportunity for the audience to build empathy for the movie's protagonist — but that might be the point. He challenges us to find something in Leslie. Something to care about.
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That's a difficult task considering where we find her. Kicked out of the motel she's been staying out for not paying rent, she seeks out her son James (Owen Teague, who appears in The Cow, which is also premiering at SXSW) who lives in a nearby city. When we meet James the juxtaposition with his mother is stark. He has it together. He has a job, an apartment, friends. Everything that Leslie doesn't have. And while he's happy to house his mother while she gets off her feet, he has one rule: no drinking.
To Leslie's portrait of addiction feels so grounded. Early in the movie, James confronts Leslie after his roommate's money goes missing. In one breath, she goes from denying the accusation to playing the guilt card (“I am sick”) to digging for sympathy (“I wanna be a good mama”) to anger when she realizes she's not going to get her way. Riseborough, a chameleon in every role she's in, is so good that she makes you almost believe each lie — it's second nature to her at this point. However, what is even more heartbreaking is James' retort: “I'm not even 20. I can't even drink yet and I have to take care of my mother.” Teague, with his limited screen time, haunts the rest of the film with that line.
Eventually, she finds her way back to her hometown where she finds refuge behind a small motel run by Sweeney (Marc Maron) and Royal (Andre Royo). Though she's initially run off the property, Sweeney sees something in her and offers her job cleaning rooms in exchange for a small salary and room and board. Well, if anything, he tricks her into taking a job by acting as if she applied for one. It's like he knows that it has to be her idea for her to commit to it. As the story unfolds, we'll learn exactly why Sweeney has taken such an interest in Leslie, and why he's so adept at dealing with such a severe alcoholic. And as their relationship unfurls, Leslie gets her redemption.
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The differences between the first and second halves of To Leslie are stark. Where the first half feels like an intimate and sometimes brutal vision of addiction, the second takes on a feel-good underdog narrative. At times, it feels like the plot is too easy and devoid of conflict. As the first half is unflinching, the second flinches. Thanks to Riseborough and Maron's charming performances and terrific chemistry it doesn't completely lose your attention, but it never reaches the heights of its opening scenes.
Director Michael Morris' talents are on clear display here, particularly in the well-calibrated performances. But the story left me yearning for more. There are so many threads that we could have followed. A deeper exploration of Leslie's psyche and how winning the lottery drove her so deep into a hole, more background on Sweeney's past, and Leslie's relationship with relative Nancy (Oscar winner Allison Janney), who at some point took James under her wing and came to resent Leslie in the process. Despite its shortcomings, there's something in To Leslie that got to me. Maybe it's earnestness. It made me feel something. It made me feel something for Leslie, and that's all it wants for its audience: empathy.
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Hey! I'm Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I'm also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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