Better Living Through Chemistry (2014)

(In French, On Cable TV, October 2022) I’m going to file Better Living Through Chemistry in the seemingly infinite list of movies I should have seen earlier. A neo-noir parody set in an unthreatening small town, the film focuses on a pharmacist who turns to the dark/fun side of life when he’s seduced by a trophy wife and uses his knowledge of pharmacology to create chemical cocktails of quasi-superheroic power. A great cast starts with Sam Rockwell in the lead role and a curiously blonde Olivia Wilde as the vamp, but eventually extends to Ray Liotta as a rich man targeted for pharmaceutical murder, Michelle Monaghan as an emasculating wife and Jane Fonda (of all people) as the film’s narrator. Quite a bit of the film is steadily amusing—Rockwell is in his element here, and the early part of the film works as a descent into perdition for his character. The film noir parody becomes more and more insistent as the film advances, with a finale that delights in not providing conventional narrative closure (although there is definitely is some closure). Where Better Living Through Chemistry falters is in comparing it to the film it could have been—maybe it’s a case of a middling idea that lands a few great sequences and a terrific cast, but the film doesn’t meet the possibilities of its premise: You can imagine a renegade pharmacist turning far worse than the mild hedonist described here, especially with an entire small town ripe for corruption. The ending can also be argued to wuss out at the last moment—handing over an ironic and ill-deserved victory even if that’s the point. There’s also something incredibly familiar in small-scale filmmakers taking shots at suburban ennui—like that’s the first time anyone has ever thought about it. Still, it’s watchable enough… as long as you keep your expectations in check. Approach it as a little-seen indie film and you’ll see for yourself.