Perfect Artwork, Good Acting, Average Story, Bad Storytelling

Rating: 5/10 (14 October 2015)

Finally got to watch this movie after such a long time.
Let me begin with this: You will hardly find any other 5/10 stars review for this movie, this is a love or hate movie for most and I will try to elaborate why it is so without spoiling it too much.
SPOILER ALERT: I wouldn't really call them spoilers since I won't be talking about any details. But I will be saying things like "the ending is good/bad" so please stop reading if you don't want to see any of that.
In short, it is exactly what my summary says: Perfect Artwork, Good Acting, Average Story, Bad Storytelling.
If you are looking for a masterpiece of an artwork, this is the one. Tragically beautiful, and great choice of style and film score. For a 2000 movie, it is almost a 10/10 in this aspect.
Acting was really closer to average for most characters, but Ellen Burstyn's performance alone is more than enough to make up for any blemishes. I would even suggest anyone to watch the movie just for her acting.
Now comes the bad bit:
The story is absolutely nothing new. It's simply a confirmation of what most people already knew: drugs are bad for you. And that's fine. But the major downside of this movie is that it stops at that (drugs are bad). The characters have absolutely no depth to them. The movie shows close to nothing about their inner struggles and compelling reasons behind taking drugs. They are simply a portrayal of a stereotypical druggie, nothing more; nothing less.
What can a person learn from this movie? Nothing at all. Unless you haven't already heard about drugs being bad for you? If you already know drugs are bad, perhaps this movie can remind you that drugs are really really bad, and that's it. No solution, no depth, no hope.
Like I said, it's a beautiful piece of tragic artwork, but absolutely nothing inspirational and nothing new to learn about. Avoid it like a plague if you enjoy transcendental and inspirational movie, but definitely do give it a shot if you are all about arty farty Shakespeare kind of movies.
Personally I regret watching it, because there is nothing educational or entertaining about the movie; just makes the world seems more gloomy that's all.