An unforgettable Experience

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2003)

I saw RFAD for the first time in May of 2002. I approached it from an element of complete ignorance. I knew nothing of the film, only what I read on the back cover and that didn't help me very much, but I heard enough it's name plenty of times so I decided to give it a looksey. When the credits started to roll I had a deep feeling of sorrow in the pit of my stomach. It left an incredible impact on me and I just had to see it again. I was stunned at the complexity of the characters and the multiple themes one could find in here. There are emotions in this film that everyone can relate to. It is not just a film about junkies and how they mess up their lives with drugs. It is about what drives the people into those drugs. It is about loneliness, and most importantly it is about how everything can become your drug of choice, from candy to television to daydreaming anything in your life that you cannot seem to live without is your drug of choice.
More than that it is the way one finds these characters to be at the end. Many people will point out certain elements that are not true to real life. They say that the doctor didn't play a doctor correctly, but do you know why? It is because he isn't a doctor. I've never heard people complain that the gangsters in The Godfather or Goodfellas weren't realistic enough. Some people choose to hate films for two reasons, number one, they don't understand it or number 2 they want to feel special by being different.