Florence

Yeah, really. I'd like to see the movie about recovery, about trying and failing, about the connections that can be repaired and the ones that can't, epiphanies big and small. Everyone likes the dramatic story about the downfall, but the plodding uphill journey coming back from hell is boring and uncomfortable or something.

peridotbleu

My AH and I talked about renting it, but I got the impression from the previews that with Denzel being a highly functional A, that it might condone the issue in my AH's mind. ("No one else could have saved the lives like he did" and he was under the influence).
I would like to see it, just a little comprehensive. I am sure like others have said that I can definitely relate!
Thanks for posting!!

SparkleKitty

I saw it on Sunday, and agree that it wrapped up pretty neatly. But it wasn't a movie about recovery but getting to the point of being ready for recovery, I think, so I was okay with the ending.

Mainly, as an actor myself, I was just pleased to see Robert Zemeckis go back to making a movie with living, breathing human beings in it instead of animated ones! And what a job Denzel Washington did inhabiting that character.

Oh and I'm not getting on a plane again for a loooong time.

DreamsofSerenity

I agree that the ending was unrealistic, and schmaltzy too. What I appreciated about it though was how sad for Denzel's character I felt. I've been struggling to find compassion for my exabf. Granted, he's never done anything noble and brave like Denzel did in the end of the movie, he's just been cruel and blamed me for all his problems, but still, it's the same disease. I know in my heart it's a tragedy, and I want to feel compassion, but it often eludes me. So the end of the movie kind of helped me in a way.

LexieCat

Well, at the end, he is over a year sober (the cards on his desk in the cell). I've seen people grow that much in a year. The guys who wrote the Big Book were only four years sober at the longest--of that first hundred, most of them only had a year or so. And who knows if that was his VERY last drink--it would have taken at least a few months for him to even land in prison, even assuming a guilty plea. And I didn't find the reconciliation with his son at all unbelievable, either. He was disgusted with his dad's drinking, but I never got the sense he was an abusive man by nature.

So it was a "flash forward"--and I would assume there were some struggles in there along the way, but the feeling of peace you can get when you are finally DONE is hard to imagine unless you've been there.

Crazed

I did think it was so much better than "28 Days"....

scacra1

anyone know any other movies that are along the same lines?

DreamsofSerenity

Requiem for a Dream is about addiction. It's an amazing film directed by the guy who directed Black Swan--amazing in the sense it is very beautifully done. IMO, it's more intense than Flight, more abstract, and definitely doesn't wrap anything up neatly. If your favorite scene in Flight was the one with the mini bar in the hotel room, you'd probably like Requiem for a Dream.

LexieCat

Warning: Requiem is VERY gruesome in places. I loved the movie--one of my favorite directors--but it is dark, DARK, DARK. And some of the scenes are DEFINITELY not for the squeamish.

cr995

It made me think - yep this problem I have with AH is not about what I did or said its about a disease! In the scene when he starts berating his ex-wife about how she asked if he had been drinking 'within 17 seconds' of him arriving at the house (drunk I might add) - I thought hmnn so this stuff doesn't only happen to me. It's one thing to read about stuff but something else to see it as it were 'in action'.

inpieces314

Everything Must Go. Will Ferrell.

Awesome movie. I wanted to get it on redbox a couple weeks ago, and the abf was like, no, I don't like it, blah blah blah.

For some reason, I forgot he was an alcoholic. So when I watched it, I was like, Duh! THAT'S why you didn't want to see it again!