Blow

Starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Franka Potente, Paul Reubens, Rachel Griffiths, Ethan Suplee and Ray Liotta. Written by David McKenna and Nick Cassavettes based on the book by Bruce Porter. Produced by Denis Leary, Joel Stillerman and Ted Demme. Directed by Ted Demme.

When is a drug movie not a drug movie? Never, and Blow is not an exception. In telling his story in flashback, George Jung (Johnny Depp) is aware of the consequences of his actions, but never takes responsibility for them, until it is too late. The audience, I imagine, is supposed to feel sorry for the guy, but after all, he’s a drug dealer, and not a very bright one at that.

George starts life as his father’s (Ray Liotta) darling child, the proverbial golden boy. His mother (Rachel Griffiths), never too happy with her station in life, constantly leaves and comes back to the family, but George is never without his father’s love. In the late 60’s George and his buddy Tuna (Ethan Suplee) move from New Hampshire to the beaches of California, and soon discover they only have one talent, selling pot. They hook up with the openly gay Derek Foreal (Paul ‘aka Pee Wee Herman’ Reubens) and soon are the biggest pot dealers on the West Coast. George even has a great relationship going with Barbara (Franka Potente), and is soon to be married. Of course, it all turns to crap rather quickly. George is busted for holding 660 pounds of pot, and Barbara doesn’t last very much longer.

George goes to prison for twenty-six months, and it is there he meets Diego, who informs George that pot is small-time stuff, that the "coca" is where it’s at. After they both get out, Diego sets up a meeting with the infamous Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medalline drug cartel, and George and Diego soon have the largest Cocaine business known to mankind. By the end of the 70’s, as George says "If you bought cocaine there was an 85% chance it came from us."

Diego even introduces George to his new wife, Martha (Penelope Cruz), a Latin beauty with ties to the drug families. George and Martha soon have a daughter, and life is perfect.

Until George gets screwed over and then busted again. The cycle continues itself for George, we are treated to three separate incarceration periods during the film. The real George Jung is still serving the last one (as we’re told in the post-script).

What do we have with this film? Some terrific performances, one by Johnny Depp as the loser drug-dealer who can’t figure out why he keeps getting shit on, and another by Ray Liotta as his loving father. I couldn’t help thinking though, that Liotta was going to explode any minute, ala Goodfellas, but alas, that’s why actors take different roles. Cruz is adequate in her role as the bitchy wife, who is far too reminiscent of George’s mother.

Unfortunately this is material that we’ve all seen before, most notably in the DePalma Scarface, though I’d definitely say that this film has a lot less violence. Depp carries the picture, as well he should, but the pacing and story-telling are too lazy. The film plods along to it’s foregone conclusion, and at 124 minutes, it could have easily been shorter and tighter.

Demme, probably best known as the brother of Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, still doesn’t have a quality film to his credit, though this one is close. His breakthrough, if you can call it that, was 1996’s Beautiful Girls, a film that I found almost unwatchable. The screenplay by David McKenna and Nick Cassavettes can’t really be faulted, after all they’re working from previously published material, and it’s hard to make a great biography of a loser human-being. The dialogue is crisp and snappy, and the scenes mesh well together, it’s just that the story is too long and too drawn out. It goes from the 1950’s all the way to the present in two hours, sometimes skipping spans of years at a time.

I think this film would be more likeable, if the character of George Jung was more likeable. The only one responsible for George still being in prison is George, and if that’s not pathetic, I don’t know what is.

My rating *** out of 5.