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Granted it wasnt quite as torturous to watch Timothee Chalamet play an 18 year old Meth addict as it was to watch Chewitel Ejiofor play a hapless victim of brutal slavery. But at times it felt pretty close. There are some very ugly graphic scenes of quintessential boy next door Chalamet actually injecting himself and completely zoning out like a drug crazed zombie.
The heart and soul of this film is the father son relationship between Chalamet and Steve Carrel. This is the strongest feature of the film by far. Chalamet and Carell's chemistry is far stronger than the script itself. Their palpable affection toward each other actually creates emotional layers and nuances that are not necessarily present in the script. As a matter of fact Chalamet and Carell come off much more as inter-generational friends rather than father and son. Baby Boomers would compare them to Bill Bixby and Brandon Cruise in "The Courtship of Eddie and His Father."
Even more disturbing is the fact that the script even ( SPOILER ALERT) hints at the fact that they may have done drugs together for recreation.
This chemistry naturally causes one to ask where is Tim's biological mom? That's a question that is answered, but IMO not well enough. Eventually we do get to meet Tim's mom. From the start we see that Steve Carell is estranged from his ex wife ( Tim's mom) and he has remarried and had 2 adorable kids with another woman ( played wonderfully by Maura Tierney).
The film does an excellent job juxtaposing Tim's life with his step mom and his step siblings against the dark, grittiness and filth of his Meth abuse. But the problem is IMO we dont really get a clear understanding of what actually compels Tim toward his addiction. We get a cursory view of the dysfunction between his biological parents. His mom is obviously self absorbed and fairly absent in her son's life. But the sincere devotion of Tim's dad, his siblings and his step mom come off so strong that the viewer is still left scratching his head trying to figure out just why this kid turned to drugs. This fact IMO leaves a huge hole in the story much like a murder mystery with no motive.
That being said this film still delivers some very poignant and heart wrenching moments mostly due to the chemistry of Carrel and Chalamet. What Chalamet may lack in acting talent he makes up for with his look. His dazzling, boy next door smile and clean cut suburban image provides the perfect dichotomy to graphic scenes of him shooting up and vomiting on himself. Those scenes are very hard to watch. The producers also do their best to relieve the lagging scenes with very creative uses of background music and film editing. But IMO the music they chose in quite a few scenes causes those scenes to drag even more. The film is still worth seeing and there are some fairly great performances. But the story would've been better served with a tighter script and much faster pacing.
