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Down to the Bone
Laemmle/Zeller Films


7.2

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

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.

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.

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.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Quietly devastating.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Writer-director Debra Granik has found a star, and wisely builds every scene around Farmiga's character.

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.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A quietly harrowing chronicle of addiction and fragile recovery anchored by Vera Farmiga's intense performance.

The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder

The kind of movie most independent films strive in vain to be: a small, beautifully faceted gem.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Strong performances from Vera Farmiga and Hugh Dillon keep things from becoming overdramatic.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Down to the Bone Laemmle/Zeller Films

Down to the Bone
Laemmle/Zeller Films