Ray Milland plays a very suave drunk in this classic film. The portrayal of alcoholism is simultaneously exaggerated and sanitized, as seems typical for films made under the Hollywood production code, but this is nonetheless a genuinely good movie. It is told out of sequence, and Wilder does a good job mixing plot elements chronologically to slowly reveal to us the nature and history of the relationship between the male and female leads. The flashback to their meeting and courtship period takes us to a period before things got so bad for our character and then shows us just how things got quite so muddled. Yes, the same general comment can be made of many flashback sequences, but this one has a special charm. It reminds me of another famous flashback sequence; I hope I am not being too bold in saying that it foreshadows the Deniro scenes in The Godfather Part II. The big problem with Lost Weekend is the ending, which is weak enough to substantially undermine the overall quality of the movie. The effect is what we would get from a deus ex machina, but Wilder doesn't even give us the satisfaction of showing the machine. Movie goes roughly like this: character is drunk and depressed or hungover and depressed and his life is falling apart; in the final 60 seconds he turns his life around because, well, just because it finally seems like a good idea. Unsatisfying to say the least. Still, the bulk of the movie is quite enjoyable, and ultimately I was happy for our protagonist, scoundrel though he was, even as I was disappointed in the final pages of the script.
Review of The Lost Weekend
