CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Down to the Bone
Laemmle/Zeller Films

Down to the Bone reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 76 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.2 out of 10
based on 13 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Vera Farmiga, Hugh Dillon, Clint Jordan, Caridad 'La Bruja' De La Luz, Jasper Daniels, and Taylor Foxhall

Irene (Farmiga) is a working class mother living in upstate New York. She struggles to keep her marriage together and raise two sons while keeping her cocaine addiction a secret. After a series of nearly fatal mishaps, and finally hoping to make a change in her life, she decides to check herself into a rehab center. There, she meets and falls in love with a fellow reformed addict (Hugh Dillon). When one of them falls into a relapse with the addiction, their commitment to staying clean – and to each other – shatters. This beautifully wrought film accurately and authentically explores the wrenching road of recovery without ever resorting to histrionics. (Down to the Bone Productions)


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Debra Granik
Richard Lieske
 
DIRECTED BY: Debra Granik  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: October 31, 2006 
Theatrical: November 25, 2005 
RUNNING TIME: 104 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Director's Award (Dramatic) and Special Jury Prize (Dramatic, for the performance of Vera Farmiga), 2004 Sundance Film Festival

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Down to the Bone achieves what only the best independent films have: making life, at its most unvarnished, a journey.
Read Full Review
100
San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson
The film is so pitch perfect and realistic, it seems you are there with these people, watching their lives unfold before you as it happens.
Read Full Review
90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Down to the Bone emerges with an aura of authenticity so strong as to be mesmerizing, thanks to a superior script brought to life with infallibly natural performances.
Read Full Review
80
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Quietly devastating.
Read Full Review
75
New York Post Kyle Smith
Writer-director Debra Granik has found a star, and wisely builds every scene around Farmiga's character.
Read Full Review
75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
If there were an ounce of taste left in Hollywood, the magnificent Vera Farmiga would be a front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
A quietly harrowing chronicle of addiction and fragile recovery anchored by Vera Farmiga's intense performance.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder
The kind of movie most independent films strive in vain to be: a small, beautifully faceted gem.
Read Full Review
70
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Strong performances from Vera Farmiga and Hugh Dillon keep things from becoming overdramatic.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
This is a performance without the histrionics and emotional outbursts that accompany most portrayals of addiction. This feels closer to the truth.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Robert Koehler
First-time feature director's disciplined objectivity is coupled with humanism in this collaboration with a gifted cast and cinematographer. The artistic success, though, may be a bit too cool.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice Laura Sinagra
Like Catherine Hardwicke's "Thirteen," this film has an ear for the way moms talk to kids, a sensitivity to drug-sweetened intimacies, and an appreciation of the urgent nuance, not just the comedy, of recovery-speak.
Read Full Review
63
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Farmiga is excellent as a woman who is like the mouse she feeds to her son's pet snake - trapped and about to be eaten alive by ordinary circumstance.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Robert B. gave it a3:
Not much new from this entry into the druggie genre. Slow and lacking in revelation, though you do get the sqeamish feeling of watching people trash their lives.

Chad S. gave it a7:
"Down to the Bone" differs slightly from other films in how it depicts the drug-addled junkie. Irene (Vera Farmiga) is hooked, but she's functional. She has a job and her children are remarkably well-adjusted. In movies like "Down to the Bone", you sort of know the drill; the addict hits rock bottom and then he/she enters rehab. But this film is more nuanced, less sensationalistic about addiction. Vera never pulls a Uncle Ned ("I hit Alex!"), or makes a spectacle of herself in a public arena. Entering rehab isn't how this film climaxes. "Down to the Bone" is about an addict who's in and out of twelve-step programs, which means we have to watch Vera in encounter groups and other drug recovery-related activities, not one time, but twice. Dramatically, that's a problem.

Christopher H. gave it a10:
I caught this one last night and was completely blown away by this film. There was so much verisimilitude I thought I was watching a documentary. This film nails it, addiction, blue collar people, small time life. A real sleeper.

Pete L. gave it a10:
Excellent film that shows a glimpse of the reality of drug addiction and the torture that usually accompanies it.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: World News | Fantasy Football | Amy Winehouse | Baseball | E3 | Batman | Firefox 3 | iPhone 3G

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use