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To Leslie
Andrea Riseborough is the executive producer and star of 2022's To Leslie, a gritty and intense family drama that has a problematic screenplay but is so well-directed and well-acted that we almost buy what is being sold here, thanks primarily to a solid performance from Riseborough that has earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Leslie is a hard drinking party girl and single mother who won $190,000.00 in the lottery and drank and snorted it away as quick as she won it. The movie then flashes forward six years where we find Leslie, penniless and destitute. After being rejected by her now grown son and other family, Leslie returns to her hometown and may have found some form of redemption when she gets hired as a maid at a rundown motel.
Screenwriter Ryan Binaco does deserve credit for his creation of this central character, who is rooted in realism to the point that a lot of us know someone like Leslie. She has a myriad of problems that she is in denial about it and blames all her troubles on someone else. She is observed walking around bars throwing herself at men and standing in front of liquor stores waiting for someone to buy her a beer. And when they do buy her a beer and expect something in return, she acts shocked and disgusted.
It's once she gets to the hotel that the story begins to lose me. She's discovered by the motel owners sleeping behind the property and their first impulse is to give her a job? Not only does she get a job, she is given a $50 advance before she even begins work. Of course, she's a terrible maid and somehow manages not only to talk hotel boss Sweeney into not firing her, but the guy actually falls in love with her. The hard to swallow plot had to be conceived by executive producer Riseborough in order to protect this interesting but pathetic character who, in reality, would have ended up in jail, in rehab, or dead.
No matter how improbable Leslie's journey is in this movie, the viewer remains invested because of Riseborough's raw performance that reaches past the screen and slaps the viewer in the face. The early scenes with Leslie and her son are beautifully squirm-worthy, as are some later reunions with people who knew Leslie before the lottery. I understand Riseborough' nomination, though I'm not sure she deserved to be nominated over Danielle Deadwyler for Till. It's a solid performance and she gets solid support from Owen Teague as James, Marc Maron as Sweeney, Andre Royo as Royal, and Oscar winner Allison Janney as Nancy. Fans of the Charlize Theron film Monster will have a head start here.
Andrea Riseborough is the executive producer and star of 2022's To Leslie, a gritty and intense family drama that has a problematic screenplay but is so well-directed and well-acted that we almost buy what is being sold here, thanks primarily to a solid performance from Riseborough that has earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Leslie is a hard drinking party girl and single mother who won $190,000.00 in the lottery and drank and snorted it away as quick as she won it. The movie then flashes forward six years where we find Leslie, penniless and destitute. After being rejected by her now grown son and other family, Leslie returns to her hometown and may have found some form of redemption when she gets hired as a maid at a rundown motel.
Screenwriter Ryan Binaco does deserve credit for his creation of this central character, who is rooted in realism to the point that a lot of us know someone like Leslie. She has a myriad of problems that she is in denial about it and blames all her troubles on someone else. She is observed walking around bars throwing herself at men and standing in front of liquor stores waiting for someone to buy her a beer. And when they do buy her a beer and expect something in return, she acts shocked and disgusted.
It's once she gets to the hotel that the story begins to lose me. She's discovered by the motel owners sleeping behind the property and their first impulse is to give her a job? Not only does she get a job, she is given a $50 advance before she even begins work. Of course, she's a terrible maid and somehow manages not only to talk hotel boss Sweeney into not firing her, but the guy actually falls in love with her. The hard to swallow plot had to be conceived by executive producer Riseborough in order to protect this interesting but pathetic character who, in reality, would have ended up in jail, in rehab, or dead.
No matter how improbable Leslie's journey is in this movie, the viewer remains invested because of Riseborough's raw performance that reaches past the screen and slaps the viewer in the face. The early scenes with Leslie and her son are beautifully squirm-worthy, as are some later reunions with people who knew Leslie before the lottery. I understand Riseborough' nomination, though I'm not sure she deserved to be nominated over Danielle Deadwyler for Till. It's a solid performance and she gets solid support from Owen Teague as James, Marc Maron as Sweeney, Andre Royo as Royal, and Oscar winner Allison Janney as Nancy. Fans of the Charlize Theron film Monster will have a head start here.