Comebacks and final collapse

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2011)

It's a movie that tries to convey a variety of things such as unhealthy childhood in a family with everlasting fighting and nagging as well as a child who adores his father no matter what happens or what he does and the father who supports his son without questioning, then addiction to drugs, friendship and betrayal. The fact that the life story of the drug dealer is narrated by George Jung himself makes us be suspicious about the objectivity of the events. Yet, it doesn't still matter because the film illustrates how such a man can't reach happiness. Some may argue that things going on in the movie may inspire drug addiction or mafias but the final scene makes it questionable. The scenes cut in Colombia or other Latin American countries add a lot to the variety. It takes back and forth between USA and other countries. Penelope Cruz once again stars with a crazy woman representing a prototype. She excels in depicting unstable and neurotic women. George is depicted naive in the sense that he keeps trusting people even though they have cheated and betrayed him many times. The only people he's happy with are his father and daughter, who never visits him in the prison. It's not a great movie, but it deserves 8 out of 10.