Film Review: Andrea Riseborough turns in a star-making performance in gritty character drama “To Leslie”
Life is full of ups and downs. In “To Leslie”, we meet our titular main character at her absolute rock bottom. Six years after winning a lottery of $190,000, Leslie (Andrea Riseborough) has nothing to show for it: She is an alcoholic, she’s getting evicted from her apartment, and she is estranged from her 19-year-old son, her parents, and everyone she knew back home in West Texas. Where does she go from here?
As its title suggests, the film is a slice-of-life character study about a very complicated woman as she struggles to survive her alcoholism, poverty, and the aftermath of her own destructive behaviour. A movie with such a singular focus often lives and dies by the strength of its lead, and Andrea Riseborough (Possessor) rises to the challenge by making us root for Leslie, a person who is so hell-bent on getting in her own way. It’s a testament to Riseborough’s breathtakingly nuanced and shamelessly committed performance that we feel a multitude of reactions about Leslie as she hurtles through the people in her life: pity, frustration, charmed, and empathy - all at the same time. The supporting cast is also impeccable here. Director Micheal Morris peppers the film with capable comedic talent that brings colour to a story about such difficult hardships, with Allison Janey being so wonderfully biting as a kind of frenemy figure to Leslie, and Marc Maron injecting some much-welcomed levity as the ‘gruff man with a heart of gold’ motel manager that Leslie encounters halfway through the film.
While this is his first feature film, Morris’ experience in directing episodes of television that revolve around complex character relationships (e.g. Better Call Saul; Brothers and Sisters) is on full display here. It would have been so easy to jump head-first into complete melodrama given the film’s subject matter, but for the most part, Morris exhibits a degree of restraint, opting instead to showcase Leslie’s quiet turmoil through her rash decisions and dramatic defensive posturing.
To Leslie is at its best when audiences are committed to zooming in. With the help of Riseborough’s magnetism, the film shines by absorbing you into the moment, allowing you to revel in the emotional truth of each scene. It’s only when the film ends, and you start zooming out, that you start to see cracks in the ‘big picture’ of the film’s storytelling. Halfway through the movie, To Leslie makes a perplexing shift in tone, transitioning from a gritty, raw, hyper-realistic snapshot of Leslie’s harsh reality, to a sentimental, by-the-books redemption narrative that veers very close to a rags-to-riches fantasy. Without the committed performances of its core cast and Morris’s assured direction, this sudden swerve in the film’s structure risks coming across as jarring wish fulfilment that chips away at the realism that permeated its first half so strongly.
But hey, maybe I’m just nitpicking. Anchored by an electrifying performance by Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie is an empathetic, engaging, and hopeful journey of rehabilitation and redemption that’s worth going on.
