A morally bankrupt film

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2003)

This movie purports to be at least based on the story of George Jung, the man who is credited with introducing cocaine to the US. Jung is portrayed here as a hapless victim. The love of his life (another drug runner incidentally) dies tragically young and he is betrayed by his friends and associates, his screeching harridan wife and ultimately his own daughter. Sorry..but i have a lot of trouble sympathising with a person who boasts in the movie about being the main supplier of cocaine during the 70s and 80s and who made 10s of millions of dollars from the trade in the process. The movie is so intent on a sympathetic portrayal of this essentially amoral person that i half expected an appeal for donations at the end of the movie to help pay his legal fees. I got the feeling watching this that Demme had made it as a tribute to an old and dear friend. We're told at the end that his daughter Kristina has not been to visit him in prison as though she's some sort of heartless offspring of a dear old man. Is this somehow meant to make her feel guilty if she sees this movie?
The acting performances were satisfactory but none of the characters were people i had any interest in...apart from hoping they'd soon be behind bars.