MS Speaks

I've seen the movie, and had a mixed reaction to it. Although the movie doesn't cover Callahan's death, I learned from Wikipedia that he died of infected bed sores--a fact that makes his story all the more poignant.  That this is still happening, in an age of miracle drugs and supposedly up-to-the-minute medical knowledge, is tragic and shows how little understanding there is of paralysis and its dangers, even now.

In the movie the focus is on Callahan's alcoholism, and we are shown several AA meetings.

I don’t know what to make of this movie, partly because I don’t know enough about the real person.

The movie may be giving a somewhat skewed representation of typical AA meetings. This particular group is led by a (self-appointed) guru of sorts, whose condescension I found grating but apparently he is well tolerated by everyone in the group.  My impression of typical AA dynamics is that a member’s sponsor might be something like a guru, at least at first, but soon enough it becomes clear that even one’s sponsor–who is advanced enough along the AA path to be doing the all-important 12th-step work of helping other alcoholics to recover–is a fallible human being.  Also, one’s own sponsor isn’t a leader of the group to the extent that Donnie is in this movie. No one person is in charge because everyone is equally important in AA. There are no elected officers, no group leaders. That’s not what AA looks like here in Don’t Worry…. There may be those opinions and experience are more respected than others, but that is about as far as most AA groups go towards having any hierarchical structure, I believe.

That the Swedish physical therapist who happens into Callahan's life might be a figment of his imagination, as the New Yorker review suggests,  makes the story more understandable though in the movie itself it isn't clear that she is imaginary.