‘I Smile Back’ Trailer: Sarah Silverman Gets Serious

If you watched Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, then Sarah Silverman’s dramatic turn in I Smile Back will hardly come as a surprise to you, but if you’re only familiar with her comedy work, then this trailer for the upcoming drama might knock your socks off a bit. Silverman shows a very different side of herself in the critically acclaimed new film, which impressed critics earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

I Smile Back stars Silverman as Laney, a suburban wife and mother who is heading further down a reckless and restless spiral. The Good Wife’s Josh Charles plays her doting husband and the father of their kids, who struggles to understand and help his wife, whose problems seem baffling in the face of all the wonderful things in her life. But when she stops taking her medication, Laney’s behavior worsens as she begins self-medicating with booze and drugs and casual affairs.

The film looks deeply affecting, and Silverman’s performance should have audiences looking at her in a very different light.

Here’s the official synopsis:

I Smile Back explores the life of Laney (Sarah Silverman), an attractive, intelligent suburban wife and devoted mother of two adorable children. She has the perfect husband (Josh Charles), a pristine house, and a shiny SUV for carting the children to their next activity. However, just beneath the façade lie depression and disillusionment that send her careening into a secret world of reckless compulsion. Only very real danger will force her to face the painful root of her destructiveness and its crumbling effect on those she loves.

I Smile Back also stars Thomas Sadoski, Terry Kinney and Chris Sarandon, and hits theaters on October 23.