As we all know, Johnny Depp is one hell of an actor. Anyone who has seen him do his thing in any countless number of movies (The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Donnie Brasco, just to name a few) knows what he's capable of. It's good to know that he doesn't fail to please in this biopic about Edward Jung, the man who introduced genuine Columbian cocaine into North America.
There's not much to say about the movie itself. It's a decent enough flick, I suppose, though not nearly as interesting as Fear And Loathing. It starts out with Jung as a kid and his relationship with his parents, his father a hardworking blue-collar kinda guy, and his mother a woman who doesn't think that she's being given enough in life (re: money, money, money, posessions, posessions, capitalism, capitalism, yadda yadda yadda). He's very close to his father, who ends up losing job after job, constantly getting screwed by life in that respect but still retaining his self-respect and a positive outlook on life. During these years, Jung decides that he never wants to be poor.
Enter the "college years," during which he's not in college, but hanging out in Florida on the beach. His girlfriend introduces him to a man who can get marijuana with no trouble at all, and they soon start to sell it around the beach. Then they start shipping it to Jung's home-state. The money's pouring in. Then shit starts to happen. Jung is arrested, his girlfriend dies, and they all just kinda part ways.
In prison, he makes a Columbian contact, and when he finally gets out the two of them start trafficking cocaine. Before long, Jung is dealing with the most powerful and dangerous man in the drug-cartel. Money starts pouring in. Jung finds another woman, the fiance of one of his colleagues, and they're married with one daughter.
This is where the movie takes a turn. Jung lives for his daughter, even when he's thrown in prison. All he cares about is her.
The story can't be criticized too much, seeing as it's based on a man's actual life, and some of it is actually heartbreaking. That's where the movie really soars, with the performances. And, other than Depp's, one stands out in particular.
Ray Liotta. We haven't seen much of him since Goodfellas, but we all know that he's worked. He had this movie called Turbulence, he was in the underrated Copland, and just recently there was Hannibal and Heartbreakers. I must say, though, that he hasn't been this good in ages. He plays the part of Jung's father, and he drew more emotion from me than anyone else in the movie. I won't go so far as to say he should earn a Best-Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, but it would be fabulous if he did.
I don't have much more to say. This was a good movie, for certain, but it wasn't great. As with any movie based on a person's life, it has its ups and its downs, the places where it soars, and where it crawls. Really, it's the performances in the movie that carry it when the story and action falter.
And with that said, I have no more to say.