down to the bone

Last year’s Sundance Film Festival honored DOWN TO THE BONE with two highprofile, prestigious and extremely competitive awards: Best Director and A Special Jury Prize for acting. A stellar entry in the Dramatic Competition, writer/director Debra Granik, in her feature film debut, and actress Vera Farmiga became the talk of the Festival and the indie film community.

In DOWN TO THE BONE, Irene (Vera Farmiga) is a working class mother living in upstate New York. She struggles to keep her marriage together and raise two sons while keeping her cocaine addiction a secret. After a series of nearly fatal mishaps, and finally hoping to make a change in her life, she decides to check herself into a rehab center. She knows kicking the habit would be tough, but the experience proves even more difficult than she could have anticipated. There, she meets and falls in love with a fellow reformed addict (Hugh Dillon). When one of them falls into a relapse with the addiction, their commitment to staying clean ‚and to each other ‚ shatters. This beautifully wrought film accurately and authentically explores the wrenching road of recovery without ever resorting to histrionics.

<b>Reviews</b>
"...a gifted cast and cinematographer. The pent-up emotions and disappointments simmering inside Irene are expressed with magnificent quietude by Vera Farmiga who finally gets a role that shows her talent. Farmiga's work and the film as a whole show keen intelligence. Michael McDonough's digital lensing is surpassingly beautiful. Dillon's perf as a man who only seems to have it together is marvelous in every detail. Production is a model of what can be done on a tiny budget." -Robert Koehler, Variety

"Granik's decision to use real locations grounds the story as well, and ultimately allows the audience to become immersed ...But the film's real strength lies in its lack of pat resolutions ...strong performances from Vera Farmiga and Hugh Dillon ...(Farmiga) brings needed weight to a role... "Down to the Bone" achieve a resonance rarely found in similar films without becoming bogged down in cliche." -Pete Vonder Haar, film threat