Michael Keaton is ostensibly the star of this movie. There's no doubt that he gets most of the screen time, and his character of Darryl Poynter is the one around whose experiences the movie revolves. Darryl is a hot shot commercial real estate salesman with a couple of problems: first, he's embezzled $90,000 and is on the verge of getting caught, and second, he's an alcoholic and drug addict who hasn't admitted that fact to himself, and who discovers (at the same time he realizes that his embezzlement has been found out) that a girl he picked up at a mall the night before has died of an overdose in his bed. With everything closing in on him, Darryl needs a place to escape to so that he can figure his next move out, and he decides to check himself into an addiction counselling centre to take advantage of its confidentiality. He has to lie his way through while there, to convince his counsellor (played by Morgan Freeman) that (1) he accepts that he's an addict, and (2) that he's serious about recovery so he can stay. At the centre, he meets Charley (Kathy Baker), who's dealing with her own addictions and her relationship with her husband, who is both an addict and abusive (certainly verbally; possibly physically.)
While Keaton was the star, I was actually far more taken with Baker's performance and her character of Charley. She did a great job portraying this character who was struggling to overcome her drug and alcohol addiction, but who continually allowed herself to be manipulated by both Lenny (the husband) and Darryl, who develops a real obsession with her (to the point at which he seemed more like a stalker than anything else.) I thought Charley's story was more interesting and far more sad, while Darryl was most interesting when he was dealing with Charley. In the end, a tragedy involving Charley (which somewhat mirrors the tragedy the movie opened with) is what jars Darryl into finally admitting to his addictions.
This isn't the most powerful movie dealing with the issues of addiction and alcoholism I've ever seen (I'd probably give that nod to 1962's "Days Of Wine And Roses" with Jack Lemmon) but it's an interesting, if somewhat melancholy, movie. 7/10
While Keaton was the star, I was actually far more taken with Baker's performance and her character of Charley. She did a great job portraying this character who was struggling to overcome her drug and alcohol addiction, but who continually allowed herself to be manipulated by both Lenny (the husband) and Darryl, who develops a real obsession with her (to the point at which he seemed more like a stalker than anything else.) I thought Charley's story was more interesting and far more sad, while Darryl was most interesting when he was dealing with Charley. In the end, a tragedy involving Charley (which somewhat mirrors the tragedy the movie opened with) is what jars Darryl into finally admitting to his addictions.
This isn't the most powerful movie dealing with the issues of addiction and alcoholism I've ever seen (I'd probably give that nod to 1962's "Days Of Wine And Roses" with Jack Lemmon) but it's an interesting, if somewhat melancholy, movie. 7/10