Horrifying, amazing story

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2006)

I admit I forced myself to watch the whole movie; there is more pain and torment in it than I wanted to watch and almost more than I could stomach. The movie deserved that much, is all, from the writers to the director to the actors whose skill made it so terribly real.
I've since thought that the worst thing about this movie is its rating. Teenagers shouldn't be banned from seeing this film ... this terrifying depiction of the possible consequences of drug addiction should be *required* viewing in every secondary school in the land, and it'd have far more of an impact than any DARE program or "Just Say No" ever could.
Unfortunately, that won't happen, because far be it that our children should watch a film that has (gasp!) deviant lesbian sex in it, however much it's the least erotic non-rape sex scene in cinematic history -- and is also likely a reason that this film didn't attract Oscars. (I've long since thought that Jennifer Connelly got her Academy Award in A Beautiful Mind for being little more than eye candy because the Academy didn't dare to give her one for her incredible performance here.)
I couldn't honestly tell you whether this was a "great" movie or not, but it is a *necessary* movie.
9/10.