Who gets a second chance at life? A third? 20th? What is the cost to get these opportunities? Director Michael Morris’s debut film “To Leslie”This is an open-hearted, but conventional, tribute to Leslie (Andrea Riseborough), who is a woman who wants to be free of herself.
In the film’s opening credits, an old news clip airs: Once upon a time, Leslie won the lottery jackpot of just under $200,000 by playing her son’s birth date. She tells the anchor she wants to use the money to get on her feet, open a diner, maybe — but only after she’s bought everyone a round. We find out that the wide-eyed dream of opening a diner and buying everyone a round never became a reality after more than a thousand rounds.
When we meet Leslie, she’s been evicted from her motel room, forced to board a bus back to where her son James (Owen Teague, also appearing in SXSW title “The Cow”) cautiously agrees to put her up. Leslie jumps on a bus again to her hometown to escape the worst.
“To Leslie”Unglamorous and unflinching, she lilts from dive bars to hotels across an errant desert breeze. So too is Riseborough’s performance as Leslie. Riseborough is a familiar chameleon on television and film. Here, she takes center stage in a raw, honest performance. Leslie is no two-dimensional addict — she is equal parts frustrating and magnetic. Riseborough brings a humanity and an anger to this performance; it’s not just a woman suffering, but also a woman resisting every part of herself.
Leslie’s odyssey next takes her to Nancy (an under-utilized Allison Janney) and Dutch (an even more under-utilized Stephen Root). Attempts to establish conflict outside of Leslie’s struggles feel vague and ephemeral. Nancy’s bitterness is not well-developed or underwritten. Janney and Riseborough take smug shots. It is clearer through telling than by showing that Leslie struggles to stay upright. However, her family does not want her succeed. They hate her chances and money. Soon after arriving, she’s back out on the street.
Writer Ryan Binaco (“3022”(Dedicated “To Leslie”It was his mother who was the cause of it all. This is why the film feels so amazing and avoids sentimentality. Leslie suffers from some awful things, but she is also the one who causes them. It seems that for the first hour of the film it is almost impossible to believe that this is actually happening. OnlyLeslie is going to experience some awful things. One believes that she has reached rock bottom when she is evicted from her humble home and left sitting on the streets in the rain. There are still a few more bottoms before the movie swings upward. The first act can feel, at times, harsh. Leslie may have done wrong, but what are the benefits of watching her suffer?
Eventually, Leslie crosses paths with Sweeney (Marc Maron) and Royal (Andre Royo), who run the local motel, where she’s granted the space and patience to get back onto her feet. Although it is a cliché to portray a down-on their luck person who gains resilience through manual labor, Leslie’s figurative job cleaning motel rooms helps her metaphorically clean her act.
It also doesn’t hurt that Sweeney — the lone figure in town who didn’t know Leslie at the time of her lotto-winning miracle — is willing to sit with her each night to make sure she doesn’t drink. Maron and Riseborough share a sweet, almost chaste, chemistry. He’s more interested in getting her back on her feet than in sweeping her off them. But, there is still a small romance between them.
The drama that plays out in the film’s second half is much more engaging, the script gaining momentum alongside Leslie. Larkin Seiple, cinematographer, also photographed roadside motels (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”They are rarely more romantic than they look. (Even microwave meals have a touch of warmth. Seiple frequently shoots Leslie close-up so that we can witness every grunt, every tear, and every steely gaze.
We know — from life, from “Lost” — that winning the lottery is often more of a curse than a blessing. “To Leslie,”This is a tribute to all that follows: Grit, determination, love, and patience are the best ways to make a living.
“To Leslie”Premieres at 2022 SXSW Film Fest.