A deeply moving story that should not be avoided!

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2002)

I watched this movie in July of last year and was left feeling rather depressed, in terms of of the way the story was told. I might sound far fetched, but Johnny truly Depp should deserve an Oscar for his performance as the tragic George Jung.
For me this was the only film that everyone played their roles to perfection. Hats off to Ray Liota as the father of George Jung, his charismatic portrayal alongside Johnny Depp could really be felt with alot of heart and emotion considering the ups and downs his son gets involved in. Infact if you see 'Donnie Brasco', it's more the same considering his relationship with Al Pacino's character.
I still can't understand why so many critics didn't seem to like it very much, not that I didn't of course. Problem with films is that maybe one should not try to expect too much, but rather appreciate it's vision even if might not be 100% accurate. Let's face film like Titanic weren't exactly great since there quite a few loose ends involved not mention sources misinterpreted.
Penelope Cruz was a real treat to watch. Constant crack ups with her character made her one of the most memorable with humor and sarcasm constantly being dished out.
It's just a real shame too with Ted Demme's untimely death just before the end of he year, since this was one of the very few movies that began to shine through.
Although I loved the movie I would only recommend watching once since it's a rather upsetting to see where many of the end up. You almost feel that you want try and help the characters from meeting a "fate worse than death" scenario.
Wonderful.