Every movie about alcoholism has the afflictd character trying to rehabilitate himself/herself. Is this situation, he's simply using alcohol as a suicide method. Love the movie and all the amazing cameos.
There is no "off" position on the genius switch.
Well, suicide by what? Alcohol. The reason Ben is choosing this route is because he cannot escape his demon. If he could just walk away from the bottle, he would. Go right back to the happy life he had with the good job, maybe convince his wife and child to come back. But he does none of that, because alcohol has become the master of his universe, compelling him towards this end. If wanting to die was all he wanted, much easier ways to do it. Drinking yourself to death is an ugly way to go. No, this is a movie about alcoholism.
“There are no ordinary moments. There is always something going on.” – Peaceful Warrior
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Pretty sure his child is dead. I have not read the book, but the implication seems to be in the movie that they had a son who died, he turned to alcoholism, and his wife left him.
shareThe book doesn't say that the son is dead. On the other hand, it doesn't say that he is a alive either. Only that he had one. I just assumed that his wife took him with her, but your theory could be true too.
shareSurely it is a film about alcoholism. In my opinion, the best one ever made. It doesn't have a happy ending, like almost all the others do, because - well, there isn't an happy ending for alcoholics.
It is sad, yes, but still a movie about alcoholism.
I think the OP is a incorrect. If it were about suicide, then Cage's character would have spared himself the agony and jumped from a bridge or shot himself in the head, but instead the film is ultimately about the inevitable end of a life after it had been destroyed by alcoholism.
shareThere isn't a happy ending for alcoholics that don't stop drinking. Need to qualify that.
“Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.” - Oscar Wilde
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