So a couple months back I saw a movie entitled #Cake and basically said it was a rather mediocre experience that bolstered a great performance from Jennifer Aniston and was worth watching because of for performance. I Smile Back is kind of like that but I'm not so certain it is worth watching just for Sarah Silverman's performance. Which is a damn shame because Silverman really does give it her all in portraying someone who's weighed down heavily by her addiction and mental illness. The problem isn't with her but with everything else, as this seriously is one of the most frustrating and down right unsatisfying films I've seen in quite some time. The most blatant problem with I Smile Back is its pacing, it is down right awful. To give an example: The movie begins with Silverman's character at, we can say, the apex of her addiction & mental illness and there's really no where to go but down. From there we go to her checking into rehab to get to help & then checking out of rehab. How much runtime does this take you ask? roughly 30min. That's absolutely ridiculous, that is seriously an entire movie concept shoved into 30min. At an 1hr 25min runtime it becomes blatantly clear that this isn't enough time. Before any moment can make any actual impact on the audience the movie's already gone on to the next moment (some I must say are kind of inconsequential), none of which I'd say is beneficial to the movie. I just find it so funny that I Smile Back attempts so hard to be devastating yet at the same time so actively sabotages itself from being devastating. But the greatest crime this films short runtime commits is with its ending. This films ending is the very definition of abrupt, the type of ending that you make you say out loud "no fucking way that's the ending"; it is easily one of the worst ones I've ever seen. With the type of all out performance Silverman gives here this movie should be better, but unfortunately it isn't. I Smile Back is plagued by too many problems to be something truly special, and really you're better off watching something like #Shame even #Mississippi Grind you want to watch something that deals with the effects of addiction.