The only feel-good cocaine movie to date

Rating: 9/10 (29 January 2004)

I came for the Depp, I stayed for the... well, everything else. This movie really threw me a curveball with how good it was- I was expecting an American Tony Montana, bloodletting his competitors and snorting mountains of the white. Instead, an opprotunistic criminal-by-choice suffers heartbreak after heartbreak. It is strangely easy to feel sorry for him, as he isn't so much proud of what he does as he is proud of how well he does it. He's not a bad person- on the contrary, he loves his parents, treats his lovers well, and worships his daughter- and Depp captures it perfectly, yet again.
The focus of the movie travels from Depp doing some small-time marijuana peddling on the California beaches, to importing bales of pot by plane, to becoming a cocaine king with the blessing and friendship of the notorious Pablo Escobar. All the while he approaches it as a professional, never seeming to truly care whether he gets any wealthier himself or doesn't. Indeed, when the game begins to run ahead of him, he lets it go, deciding instead to become a devoted father. The law, however, still has it in for one the biggest cocaine dealers in U.S. history, and his downfall is expected, yet still a sad state of affairs when it finally comes. He maintains his undying love for his daughter throughout the rest of the film, and you really feel that he doesn't give a damn about anything else in the world. It's this touching turn for the better that sets this one apart from the dozens of dark, moody drug movies that fail at the human aspect even as they succeed at the tough guy stuff. Nine out of ten, and about four of those go strait in Depp's pocket.