Days of Wine and Roses

Joe Clay, who works in public relations, meets Kirsten, a secretary. She does not drink, so he starts her on something with chocolate in it. What follows goes down step by step: lost jobs, distance from their child, attempts at treatment and relapses. It ends ambiguously, with Joe sober and Kirsten walking toward a bar. Blake Edwards directed, from the teleplay of the same name. Jack Lemmon plays Joe and Lee Remick plays Kirsten. Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer wrote the title song, which won both an Oscar and a Grammy. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 100 percent. Bosley Crowther wrote that despite brilliant performing and Edwards's taut direction the characters do not reach complete and overpowering life; Variety called it a gruelling drama showing how the lure of alcohol can supersede even love. Lemmon was nominated for Best Actor and Remick for Best Actress. It entered the National Film Registry in 2018. One fact from outside the film adds weight: Lemmon and Remick both later sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous, and Edwards got sober a year after filming and kept returning to addiction throughout his career. Who it is for: viewers who want addiction shown without decoration and Lemmon in a dramatic register. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a story of recovery. The film leaves sobriety not as an arrival but as a decision made again every day.