A romantic drama based on Debra Granik's 1997 short film "Snake Feed", it is the story of a woman struggling with her life and cocaine habit.

The movie follows the life of Irene (Vera Farmiga) a mother of two small boys and living in upstate New York. She is a working class wife and a cocaine addict. Just by working as a grocery checkout clerk, she found it very difficult to keep up with her family life as well as her drug habits. Due to the financial strains she decided to check into a rehab center and give up her drug habits.

Irene checked herself into a rehab center and started to attend group therapy programmes and counselling sessions. She was not getting much of a support from her husband. At the center she meets a clinical male nurse
(Hugh Dillon), a reformed drug addict, and falls in love with him. They had a passionate love affair until one of them falls into a relapse with the addiction that made it difficult to carry on with their relationship. Find out more about this sad romantic tale.

The directorial debut of Debra Granik resulted in a good movie that deals with the addiction and suffering of a modern day woman. Granik extracts great performance out of the whole cast. It is a brave move on her part to produce a film about the pathetic problems of a helpless woman.

Vera Farmiga as Irene presents an excellent performance. As a woman in trouble, she very well portray her anxiety to keep her problems a secret especially from her small kids. She makes Irene's emptiness palpable. 
There are many non professional actors in the film but they all present a decent performance. The movie has some nudity and drug use but as a whole it is good film that brings out the difficulties involved in kicking the drug habits.

we rate this movie GOOD.