Sarah Silverman’s sterling performance cannot rescue this sophomorically written, unquestionably pointless film.
“Laney Brooks” (Silverman) living a lovely life with a worshipful husband “Bruce” (blandly depicted by Josh Charles) and two spectacular children; celestially- addicted, anorexic, unfaithful; her life is one destructive, masochistic moment after another. Questioning whether something atrocious happened in her primary years, either before or after her father left; when we meet the “dad”, he seems like a nice enough fellow, minimally flawed.
Baring witness, never gaining insight as to why she consciously chooses to ditch a sanitary, charmed existence for drugged days and nights, wallowing in the detritus of the doomed; devilishly devoted to the art of self- flagellation.
“I Smile Back” is a bleak, empty, manipulative vehicle for Silverman to hone her acting initiatives, testing the endurance of an unsmiling audience.
ONE & 1/2 STARS!
Peneflix