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| DIRECTED BY |
| Alison Maclean
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| STARRING |
| Billy Crudup |
| Samantha Morton |
| Denis Leary |
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It�s an interesting idea to structure your film�s narrative structure upon your protagonist�s thought processes. The drug-addled FH remembers only certain periods of time and the film�s editing is based upon that theory � he sometimes gets ahead of himself, so the film cuts back to previous scenes. This would�ve been a disaster if filmmaker Alison Maclean decided to not concern herself with coherence � but she did � which is why the film manages to make sense anyway.
However, a big mistake of Maclean�s was to concern herself so much with creating comedic elements out of this otherwise earnest look at a junkie�s personal exploits. Random junkets of humor work fine when they manage to interconnect well with reality but Maclean goes overboard when these humorous events begin to impinge upon the reality of the storyline. This is most evident in film�s first the hospital scenes with Jack Black � they�re just a little too stupid to be true. Too many laughs are attempted here and the film thus loses much of its authenticity.
The film hits a high point with Denis Leary�s storyline � just the right amount of humor is introduced and its outcome is thus quite impactful. Crudup�s performance is excellent, usually bordering well between hilarious and melancholic (the �squished baby rabbits� scene is not to be missed.)
