The Lost Weekend
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Movie Reviews of The Lost Weekend
Movie Review: Should be required viewing...
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I begin my review, the readers should know that The Lost Weekend is my number 1 all-time favorite film. So if this review sounds biased, it is---positively so.
To re-hash the plot would be redundant as so many reviewers have already done so. I will concentrate my review on the protagonist: writer Don Birnam. The movie opens (and closes) with an aerial shot of a NYC apartment window and a bottle suspended outside. Don and his brother Wick are packing for a long weekend in the country and Don is trying to figure out how he is going to smuggle his bottle along. Priceless is the disdain with which Don responds to Wick touting the countryside, with its fresh air and clean, crisp well water! The very thought of having to drink water sets Don off into a nasty and biting rejoinder. Needless to say, Don doesn't go and the result, told partially in flashbacks, is one man's descent into the deepest, horrific depths of alcoholic hell.
Every time I think about this film I get that crazy background sound in my ear---that eerie, high-pitched howling that Don Birnam (aka Ray Milland in his Best Actor, Oscar-winning performance) must have piercing his alcohol-saturated brain after downing two quarts plus of cheap rye. He becomes Don Birnam. Absolutely believable! Surrounded by a fine supporting cast and expertly directed by Billy Wilder, his is a performance for the ages. I can't say enough about it. Never would Ray Milland achieve such notoriety again. Sad. He was an amazing actor and it just goes to prove that talent, combined with brilliant directing is a sure-fire combination for success. Every aspiring actor should watch this film.
I have on more than one occasion contacted the people at the Criterion Collection requesting that they restore this classic. It deserves their treatment. I give it my highest recommendation.
Movie Review: Uncompromising
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Lost Weekend" delivers a glimpse into the world of an alcoholic. The alcoholic is Don Birman, a failed writer who seems unable to recapture the early creative success of his youth. He is magnificently portrayed by handsome leading man, Ray Milland, who doesn't mind looking really scruffy throughout the movie.
Birman is someone who abandons a writing project almost as soon as he begins one. He's so afraid to "fail" that he doesn't even try to succeed at anything. Birman claims a lack of inspiration and focus. He should have remembered that wise old adage "creativity is 99% perspiration and only 1% inspiration". But he is undisciplined and not confident.
Birman's impatience and non-commitment to his work build frustration and reinforce insecurities within himself. To numb these painful feelings, he increasingly turns to alcohol.
Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, Wilder's frequent collaborator have written a courageous often harrowing screenplay. It is searingly honest in its depiction of the downward spiral caused by substance abuse. And Wilder's forceful direction shows that he is in complete command of this sensitive subject matter.
My only complaint about this movie is the music score by Miklos Rozsa. Whenever Milland's character is lured by an alcoholic drink, Rozsa's score sounds as if it is emitting radio waves. Was this the composer's way of suggesting that alcohol was an invisible force over Don Birman? Only the usually reliable Rozsa knows for sure.
At any rate, "The Lost Weekend" is a powerful and uncompromising chronicle of alcoholism. Please see it!
Movie Review: A powerful movie about alcoholism
Summary: 5 Stars
Don Birnam, an want-to-be writer with writer's block, is ecstatic when his brother Wick finally leaves their apartment for a long weekend in the country. Free of the constant watching, he is incredibly happy and feels even better after the second drink. Throughout the five days, Don drinks, makes and forgets promises, discovers a brilliant idea for writing and forgets it just as quickly, loses track of time. His mind takes him on a guilt-ridden trip through past experiences and hallucinations. He even awakens after a spill down the stairs to find himself in the alcoholic wing of a sanitarium.Billy Wilder's film adaptation of the novel by Charles Jackson does a fine job of detailing what happens to someone in the grips of alcoholism: the desparate need, the hallucinations, the blackouts, etc. Ray Milland delivers one of the finest screen performances as Don, giving the impression that you are living every moment with Don, suffering his hallucinations and withdrawal, and thirsting for alcohol. This performance also earned him the Best Actor Academy Award. Jane Wyman is wonderful as Don's girlfriend Helen, who wants to see him through this terrible ordeal. Phillip Terry also gives a strong performance as Don's brother Wick, who wants to help Don by being the strong one, but always caves in, feeding Don's dependency.
For anyone who has read the book, certain aspects from the story have been removed and altered, but this in no way detracts from this portrait of a man in the throes of alcoholism. It's still a very potent and powerful film dealing with an almost taboo subject at the time. Highly recommended.
Movie Review: Very Effective, Sobering Story
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a very sobering story, pun somewhat intended but not to make light of a serious problem. Stories about alcoholism can be really depressing but I found this simply a fascinating account of what an alcoholic goes through. I doubt if any film since this as been as effective in telling its sordid story, but not in a sordid manner.
The acting is excellent, led by Ray Milland's performance and complemented by memorable supporting turns by Howard da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen, Phillip Terry and Jane Wyman.
I particularly enjoyed the characters played by Faylen, da Silva and Dowling. Faylen had only one scene, but it's a beauty. As a hospital aide, he gives Milland a short but riveting speech that still haunts me when I recall it. Dowling served up some great film noir-type dialog and was a sexy woman, at least in this picture, and da Silva was perfect as the bartender.
This is an involving story and has a few spots with some good cinematography, too. Another plus is the fact that it doesn't appear dated even though it is 60 years old. How many films can say that?
""""spoilers *** The only flaw, I thought, was the ending. Anyone has hooked on booze to the degree Milland was in this film, would not be able to just quit like that....but happy-ending movies are usually what work.
I hope this film's reputation encourages a few people who need to see and hear this message, to take a look. They don't have to worry about a boring, heavy-handed message. This is just plain interesting and always entertaining. It earned all the awards it received.
Movie Review: So vivid it might give you a hangover
Summary: 5 Stars
In more than 60 years, I don't believe any book or film has so vividly captured the madness of alcoholism like "The Lost Weekend." The movie with Ray Milland is a chilling adaptation of Jackson's masterful novel. One weekend in an alcoholic's life, as he begs, lies and steals in order to begin a bender that will end in a funhouse horror descent into insanity.
Jackson's novel was brilliantly written, a voyeuristic look inside the mind and desperation of a drunk, who ping pongs between delusion and outright disgust about his habit. There are delirium tremens, falls down stairs, begging at the bars, the pawning of beloved items and absolute shame through it all. Jackson never tries to romanticize the disease or to add elements to it that are not already there. Alcoholism does not need a professional writer or movie maker to enhance its ugliness.
Ray Milland takes on the movie role with animation, anger and pathos that is so genuine, you will think him authentically drunk throughout the film. The viewer is alternately sad and sympathetic, disgusted and frustrated as the drunk weaves, stumbles and staggers into his spree.
Alcoholics cringe when they read this book or watch the movie. The circumstances are too recognizable, too real. The novel ends on a stark note. The movie, which also drops the subtle homosexual undercurrent, chooses to end more optimistically.
Either way, both are as clear and chaotic as any portrayal of a chronic alcoholic can be. For this reason, "The Lost Weekend" will always stand as powerful and unflinching, much like the disease it depicts.