Blow comes off like so many other flicks which feature the marginalized and the criminal.
Depp's George Jung, on whose story the movie is based, wrestles with the kind of childhood baggage many people spend years in analysis to untangle. The fact that Jung is noted for a successful narcotics career is almost beside the point, though such sexy subject matter certainly draws a crowd. While movies like this have been done before, Depp's performance, and a screenplay written by David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes that largely avoids the pitfalls of drug-trade moralizing, hold together. Jung was prominently featured in a recent documentary produced for PBS' Frontline that questioned the efficacy of the U.S. War on Drugs. Fred is an honest, if unlucky plumbing contractor who'd rather take George to work than scramble for more jobs.