After Grady tells Sarah that his gun that he took from James is a cap gun, she holds it on him. James shoots Sarah's dog. James steals something from Sarah's house. Hardapple dents Grady's car. Grady smokes marijuana many times in this film.
Some characters also drink alcoholic beverages and smoke.
The academic world is notorious for putting the pressure on to perform, and Michael Douglas' character Professor Tripp, like so many of us, buckles under that kind of pressure. Though the condition is never identified in the movie, it seems to be a metaphor for the way life continues to bowl him over. Overall, it was refreshing to see a man in his fifties that was not so set in his ways that he couldn't experience a revelation about his life, and make the necessary changes to turn things around.