That Sarah Silverman had the gall to break out of her irreverent comic persona for a melancholic melodrama as jet black as I Smile Back is impressive in and of itself. That the film itself is resoundingly potent and her performance amongst the strongest of the year is nothing short of a shocker. Hers is what many would refer to as a “breakout” role, were Silverman not already close being to a household name. Nonetheless, the performance front and center of I Smile Back is evidence enough that Silverman needs more dramatic roles and she needs them now.
In I Smile Back, a suburban drama seething at the world around it, Silverman plays a self-destructive stay-at-home mom battling alcoholism and substance abuse. Snorting lines on her knees on her family’s white linoleum bathroom or creeping through the house on all fours under cover of night, she has never seemed so skilled at her craft. Silverman’s ironic comic persona fades almost entirely, unveiling an emotionally stunted desperado seeking fly-by-night thrills at whatever cost. It’s the kind of career-changing performance we witness but a few times a year and Silverman is hauntingly good at making the wincing pain and total abandon seem so very real.
Spiraling out of control in white-washed suburbia, Silverman’s Laney Brooks is the embodiment of the hollowness of American domesticity. She is a relic of debutant domestication, living out her stay-at-home-life one glass of wine at a time. The faux-calming but genuinely jocular persona she presents to her children hides a foaming sea of rage and domestic horror lurking beneath her fast fading facade. That her children are reaching the age of cognizance – able to digest the weird inconsistencies and strange, erratic behavior of their mother – makes it all the more difficult to watch. When her desperation and depravity is put in full view, it’s gut-wrenching stuff. Like the family in her midst, you want to hide your eyes and look away.
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Adam Salky’s film is filled with barbed moments poised to make you cringe and with Silverman ripe to juice the tragic ennui for all its worth, there’s never a short supply of challenging material. Throughout the course of the film, he explores familiar territory with a faint sparkle of novelty. His novelty being Silverman. As the unnerving familial drama segues into a dour rehab movie, her performance never wavers. Rather, it takes on a life of its own, independent of the potential banality of the dramatic addiction narrative.
We’ve seen stories of addiction grace the silver screen for over a century and only the odd one out is able to add to the almost mystic tapestry of the why and the how. Leaving Las Vegas is a prime example of the utter gloom associated with real addiction and I Smile Back is in many ways an unpleasant counterpiece to the Nick Cage-starring sinful fable in that they’re both comfortable staring into the void and consider jumping. Each play a powerful game of brinkmanship. Seems that Laney Brooks and Ben Sanderson are made for each other.
CONCLUSION: A discomforting addiction drama that hits the low notes of stay-at-home domesticity like a mallet to a gong, ‘I Smile Back’ showcases Sarah Silverman in a brutal, potent performance that is sure to reinvent her for anyone who dares to watch.
B-
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By: Matt Oakes
Started blogging about film in college when the university paper wouldn’t have him. Dislikes your consensus film Twitter favorites. Devotee of horror movies that make him die a little inside. Catches films at festivals when he can. Proud SFCS and OFCS member and Tomatometer-approved critic. Editor-in-chief of Silver Screen Riot.
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