After seeing this movie, I spent three days trying how to figure out how to open my review, ultimately deciding to do it by saying I had to spend time to figure out how to write my review. Yes, I know it sounds trite, but hey, this needed some thought first.
To apply a quote from a friend of mine, "The Lost Weekend" is "not an upper". It is the sordid tale of a man named Don Birnam (Ray Milland), a self-proclaimed writer who keeps finding inspiration in the bottom of a shot glass, only to get perpetually lost in the bottle. Birnam is an alcoholic, and this movie makes no pretense of it. In one of the earliest examples of a major film taking on addiction, the opening shot of the movie shows Don packing a suitcase for a weekend trip with his brother Wick (Phillip Terry), a bottle of liquor hanging out the window on a string. And it just goes downhill from there.
Taking advantage of an opportunity, Don ends up spending the weekend drinking. Granted, that's basically the story, but simply saying Don goes on a three-day bender is oversimplifying the plot. In a memorable (if somewhat melodramatic) performance, Ray Milland takes us inside the mind of an alcoholic (or just about any addict, for that matter), and the lengths he would go through for that next drink, including secret stashes, pawning, lies, and even theft. Milland shows us a man who is beyond contempt, beyond shame, beyond hope. His brother, his landlady, even Nat, his bartender (Howard da Silva), all tell him he needs to get off the sauce, but he continues his unrelenting downward spiral.
But it's his girlfriend, Helen St. James (Jane Wyman), who stands by him no matter the circumstances. And it is she who has the strength to hold out hope, even while he's sneaking around behind her back (literally). Whether she reaches him is better left for you, the reader, to see for yourself.
Technically, "The Lost Weekend" was shot and edited in a such a way that makes the viewer feel claustrophobic, which was director Billy Wilder's intention. Watching this movie, I began to feel Don Birnam's sense of being trapped in the bottle. To add a sense of realism to the movie, most of the exterior scenes were filmed on location in New York City using hidden cameras. In a manner of speaking, it was an experiment in cinéma vérité before it even had a name.
Other films have dealt with the issue of alcoholism (see "The Morning After", starring Jane Fonda, and "Clean and Sober", starring Michael Keaton), but this is among the first to tackle the subject head-on. And addiction-themed films, like "Rush", "Trainspotting", and "The Basketball Diaries", owe a debt to this movie.
In a nutshell, "The Lost Weekend" is a dark look at alcoholism that was daring in its time. Though somewhat over-the-top by today's standards, it is still powerful enough to hold your attention.
To apply a quote from a friend of mine, "The Lost Weekend" is "not an upper". It is the sordid tale of a man named Don Birnam (Ray Milland), a self-proclaimed writer who keeps finding inspiration in the bottom of a shot glass, only to get perpetually lost in the bottle. Birnam is an alcoholic, and this movie makes no pretense of it. In one of the earliest examples of a major film taking on addiction, the opening shot of the movie shows Don packing a suitcase for a weekend trip with his brother Wick (Phillip Terry), a bottle of liquor hanging out the window on a string. And it just goes downhill from there.
Taking advantage of an opportunity, Don ends up spending the weekend drinking. Granted, that's basically the story, but simply saying Don goes on a three-day bender is oversimplifying the plot. In a memorable (if somewhat melodramatic) performance, Ray Milland takes us inside the mind of an alcoholic (or just about any addict, for that matter), and the lengths he would go through for that next drink, including secret stashes, pawning, lies, and even theft. Milland shows us a man who is beyond contempt, beyond shame, beyond hope. His brother, his landlady, even Nat, his bartender (Howard da Silva), all tell him he needs to get off the sauce, but he continues his unrelenting downward spiral.
But it's his girlfriend, Helen St. James (Jane Wyman), who stands by him no matter the circumstances. And it is she who has the strength to hold out hope, even while he's sneaking around behind her back (literally). Whether she reaches him is better left for you, the reader, to see for yourself.
Technically, "The Lost Weekend" was shot and edited in a such a way that makes the viewer feel claustrophobic, which was director Billy Wilder's intention. Watching this movie, I began to feel Don Birnam's sense of being trapped in the bottle. To add a sense of realism to the movie, most of the exterior scenes were filmed on location in New York City using hidden cameras. In a manner of speaking, it was an experiment in cinéma vérité before it even had a name.
Other films have dealt with the issue of alcoholism (see "The Morning After", starring Jane Fonda, and "Clean and Sober", starring Michael Keaton), but this is among the first to tackle the subject head-on. And addiction-themed films, like "Rush", "Trainspotting", and "The Basketball Diaries", owe a debt to this movie.
In a nutshell, "The Lost Weekend" is a dark look at alcoholism that was daring in its time. Though somewhat over-the-top by today's standards, it is still powerful enough to hold your attention.