riveting, harrowing (spoiler at bottom)

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2004)

I've developed the habit of recording movies and watching them in bits, half an hour to wake me up in the morning, 20 minutes while I have lunch, but once I started watching this one there was no way I could stop in the middle. Visually hyperkenetic and endlessly engrossing, with a typically brilliant performance by Ellen Burstyn, you can't stop watching, although as the movie gets darker and more difficult to watch you kind of want to.

This is one of those movies that speak of the dangers of drugs not from the outside, like those lame public service ads, but from the inside; you see both what fun they're having and how horribly wrong it can go. The movie feels real and honest, but I did have a problem with something near the end:
************* SPOILER *************
The idea that a man would come into an emergency room with an arm that was clearly gangrenous and the doctor would have him arrested without treating him is utterly absurd. That's just straight-out malpractice.
********** END SPOILER ************