Wow. I just watched "Flight" last night (while 100% sober) and wanted to throw my two-cents in, and hopefully hear from others who watched that movie. Not that I've seen that many movies, but this was surely the best alcoholic movie made in the past few years. I could relate to so much of the movie and thought Denzel was amazing as an alcoholic pilot who heroically saves a disabled plane with a BAC of .24! As someone who has downed thousands of minis (including the Smirnoff Red minis that Denzel liked), the movie sort of flooded me with drinking memories. It also demonstrated well the "Alcohol Deprivation Effect" that Sinclair talks about -- every time he would force sobriety for awhile, he would binge horribly once he caved in. The scene in the hotel with the mini-bar was very tense -- we were both saying, "Don't drink it. Don't drink it." I read somewhere that this movie was to alcohol and drug addicts what Platoon was to Vietnam vets -- flashback inducing!

Still, I did sort of watch it through the eyes of The Sinclair Method. So, first, it didn't really make me crave those minis or want to drink. Those days are becoming "long gone" more and more (even though I'm only in my 5th month). Of course, it was obligatory that the movie presented AA as the "only way" to overcome the addiction. Captain Whippet was "in denial" throughout the movie and Denzel was fantastic at showing how alcoholics lie and charm to get out of messes. My favorite line of the movie was Whippet to his lawyer: "Don't tell me how to lie about my drinking. I've been doing it since I was a kid."
SPOILER ALERT: The only way that Whippet overcomes his drinking is to be locked away. Of course, I was thinking about Dr. Eskapa's comment about how prisoners can come out of jail twenty years later and pick up right where they started on drinking. I thought, "He's going to start drinking again as soon as he gets out of prison," even though he had confessed his addiction, did everything he was supposed to do according to AA, etc... I hope he does ok (I know it's a fictional story), but his odds are pretty low statistically speaking, which is really sad.

I also thought about how TSM will probably never make it mainstream. AA is just so much more dramatic, what with the confession and the relapses and the denial. If Captain Whippet had happened upon Naltrexone and took his pill one hour before drinking, for several months, until he was "cured," think how lame that movie would have been!!

Anyway, highly recommended movie, as long as you don't think it will throw you into some sort of binge.

P.S. John Goodman was great, as usual, as the cocaine peddling "brother" of Whippet.

It definitely made cocaine look like a good way to sober up. The music was great too. Made being an alcoholic kind of cool, too, I guess.

I saw it about a month ago and had just started back on the Nal. It was a great movie and I'd say your review is spot on. As far as how I feel about the movie..... Hmmm....somewhat sympathetic and empathetic towards Denzel, a little guilty because of how good the characters were at portraying their roles and how alcoholism effects everyone around us, Perturbed that AA is still considered the gold standard in recovery, and grateful ( in my opinion ) that I haven't gotten THAT bad. It also frightened me and I am crossing my fingers and putting a little trust into TSM that I will get a handle on my own alcohol abuse, so that I never have to go in front of a judge or be locked up. Keek