Everything must go (3½ Stars)

This is a film that I bought on a friend's recommendation, and it's not at all what I expected. Just look at the trailer. It looks like a comedy. Will Ferrell is in it, so it ought to be a comedy. And yet it isn't. It's a tragic little story that doesn't even have a happy end. I'm sorry if that was a spoiler. What the trailer doesn't tell you is that the person's tragedies are all brought upon him by his addiction to alcohol.

Nick Halsey loses his job because of his drinking excesses. His wife leaves him because she found out that he was unfaithful while on a business trip, even though he was too drunk at the time to remember it. She throws all his property onto the front lawn, changes the locks and leaves on holiday. At first he simply sleeps on the front lawn in the middle of his property, but then he begins to sell it because he's told that the only way he's allowed to keep his lawn full of furniture is to have a yard sale.

It's a depressing story, and even his anti-materialistic enlightenment when he realises he doesn't need property to be happy doesn't make it any more cheerful. But my main problem with the story is its premiss. Nick's wife throws him out, she changes the locks and leaves. The house was their joint property, so why doesn't he simply break in and change the locks again? The police detective tells him that if he breaks in he'll be arrested. But why? It's his own house. I could see a possible problem if his wife is inside the house, because she could accuse him of intending to assault her. But the house is empty, so what's the big deal? If any of my American readers can explain it to me, please leave a comment. The film takes place in Scottsdale, Arizona, in case there are specific state laws to be taken into consideration.

I'd like to add a few thoughts on the subject of alcoholism. I don't understand it. At certain times in my life I drank heavily, but I was never addicted to alcohol and I don't understand how anybody could become addicted. It's something I can take or leave. I always have alcohol in my house "for special occasions", but sometimes a bottle remains unopened for over a year because I have no desire for it. At the weekend I had two glasses of wine with my daughter to celebrate, but it will probably be weeks before I drink anything again. I don't think there's anything in alcohol itself that creates the addiction. During my peak period I was drinking more than a bottle of wine a day, mixed with spirits and liqueurs. The problem must be in the alcoholics themselves. They must have a personality disorder that makes them liable to addictions, i.e. if they didn't become addicted to alcohol it would be something else.