Coke and a Smile

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2001)

It is "Blow"'s misfortune that it came out the same year as "Traffic", another movie about the American drug trade, one lauded by critics, showered with awards and praise, and even credited with changes in drug policy dialogue. Of course, it's doubly "Blow"'s misfortune that it's not a very good movie.
"Blow" tells the story of George Jung, a likable Bostonian who was one of the central figures in the explosion of cocaine in the 80s. It's a criminal biopic, sort of. It's an exploration of a national phenomenon, kind of. It's a story about a man watching as everything he holds dear slips inexorably away from him, in a way. It covers a lot of ground. In this way, it resembles "GoodFellas", but has none of that film's spark, attitude, or vivid slices-of-life.
Part of the problem, I think, is in the source material. The movie is based on a book co-written by Jung, and in many ways it is a self-serving narrative. Unlike "GoodFellas", (adapted from "Wiseguy") "Blow" doesn't look too far past its protagonist's worldview, and this skews the story badly. We watch as he Forrest Gumps his way to the top of the cocaine trade. Jung is not particularly interesting. He is not a criminal mastermind, not a charismatic leader of men, not a sharp businessman, not a ruthless operator. He's like a criminal version of Peter Sellers in "Being There". He just shows up. It's a credit to Johnny Depp's performance that we care about this guy even a little.
Jung's fall comes about because everyone in his life betrays him. They have various reasons (mostly greed, naturally), but the movie doesn't elucidate them. We are left with the impression that everyone was just unreasoningly hostile to poor Georgie, and pathologically bent on his destruction. George doesn't seem to understand why all this is happening to him, but neither does the movie.
The casting is all good news/bad news. Ray Liotta is sadly affecting as George's gentle father who, if he has any judgments about his son's lifestyle, generally keeps them to himself. We don't get enough of him, though. On the other hand, we get way too much of horribly miscast Rachel Griffiths, in a shrill, grating turn as his mother. Penelope Cruz junkies should note that despite her high billing, she is not in very much of the movie, and in much of that she's a harpy. Franka Potente fares even worse. There is a striking performance, however, by the girl who plays Jung's daughter, and his devotion to her is one of the few things in the movie that rings right.
The movie itself is not that well made. It fails as a criminal biography, and it isn't detailed enough to be a compelling examination of the cocaine phenomenon. Pablo Escobar, the once and future king of illicit pharmacology, makes an extremely brief appearance, just long enough to remove his sunglasses and have someone shot (Escobar here cuts something of a dashing figure; one wonders if he wouldn't have made a better subject for the movie. Never mind.) The general presentation of Jung's accomplishments is dubious (in one scene, he offers to tutor a roomful of cons in the fine art of drug moving, impressing them with his declaration that he "was caught in Chicago with 660 pounds of grass." Somehow, the fact that he was CAUGHT with it isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of his smuggling skills). Many scenes are silly, such as when Cruz and Depp get hot-and-heavy right after engaging in the most banal flirting this side of a frat party ("What are you smiling at?" "What are YOU smiling at?" "I don't know.") In addition, there is a running narration by Jung that doesn't add anything to the movie except clumsy exposition. The movie is also about two montages shy of becoming a slide show. In theory, this is a visual metaphor for the fast, surreal world of drugs. In practice, you can't see what's going on and get annoyed. There are, admittedly, a couple of wrenching scenes at the very end, but they're too little, and they come too late.
In the end, "Blow" leaves us with a few lessons: 1. Cocaine is pretty bad for you. 2. Trusting people (especially if they're Colombian) is REALLY bad for you. 3. George Jung, when you get down to it, was kind of a loser.