Winning the lottery has the potential to change someone’s life forever but there have been many times, very publicly, when this fairytale spirals into a dark nightmare and makes for one very unlucky winner. This is when we meet Leslie (Andrea Riseborough), a woman who once had it all before blowing her fortune and finding herself completely at rock bottom. Making its World Premiere at SXSW, director Michael Morris’ feature film To Leslie – inspired by true events – tells the story of one woman’s fall from grace and her fight to reach normalcy once again.
“Here I Am” by Dolly Parton opens the film as we see Leslie and her preteen son James (Owen Teague) celebrating her $190,000 lottery win on cable TV. As a single mother in West Texas, Leslie’s excitement can’t be contained as she boasts about what she wants to do with her newfound “fortune”. Fast forward six years later, and we see a disheveled Leslie who is now an alcoholic living out of a single suitcase and sleeping on the streets – a far cry from the woman she was on TV not that long ago.
Penniless and abandoned, Leslie seeks to rekindle her relationship with her now teenage son. Their relationship, like most things in Leslie’s life since the event, has become strained and fragile. Despite his initial hesitancy, James lets his mom back into his life under the condition that alcohol is forbidden. But Leslie is an addict and it’s not long before he finds her drunk, on his couch, from the alcohol she bought by stealing his roommate’s cash. Having burned that bridge, again, Leslie is forced to return home alone and finds herself even further from the fractured relationship she desperately tried to mend.
It’s here, outside of a roadside motel, where Leslie catches the attention of Sweeney (Marc Maron) and Royal (Andre Royo). Seeing – and at this point, smelling – her desperation, Sweeney offers Leslie room & board in exchange for her help cleaning the rooms and grounds of the motel. She accepts and thus begins Leslie’s slow journey of redemption, self-forgiveness, and shot at a second chance at life.
Andrea Riseborough brings Leslie’s story to life with such urgency and fragility; we are angry at her decision to drink but at the same time, understand that it’s a disease controlling her actions and not her better judgment. Riseborough plays up Leslie’s many layers, she is not afraid to get grimy and vulnerable. Rounding out the cast of supporting characters are the equally impressive Allison Janney and Stephen Root, in addition to Marc Maron, Andre Royo, and Owen Teague.
To Leslie is a humble story about survival, the struggle to acknowledge your past – no matter how littered – and serves as a reminder that it’s never too late to better your life.
This review was first published on March 18, 2022 as part of our SXSW 2022 coverage.
