Blow

International cocaine trafficker George Jung, as depicted in the new movie "Blow," does not fall from his perch atop the substance runners because his amoral nature dooms him to failure. Far from it. When he's at his most amoral, he is most successful. What brings Jung down is, rather, his growing and misplaced devotion to conventional morality. Time and time again, he deals with people who throw around words like "honor" and "loyalty," and he expects these people to do what they say. Even as Jung pursues what many would call an evil end, his basic decency lends a certain poignancy to his impoverishment, disgrace and eventual capture. It is this poignancy, along with some undeniably fine acting, that allows "Blow" to transcend the fact that its methods are utterly derivative of "GoodFellas" and stand as an intriguing movie in its own right.

But oh, boy is "Blow" derivative of "GoodFellas," Martin Scorcese's masterful Mafia flick. This is all the more surprising since the director isn't some young punk with nothing in his mind but Martin Scorcese, but Ted Demme, who's directed films in the past with styles of their own. Part of the similarity, of course, is dictated by subject matter: both films attempt to explain the childhood, breakthrough, ascent, and eventual fall of a lawbreaker, telling of events over many decades by using flashbacks and drop-ins on the most dramatic moments. Both films were also adapted from nonfiction books, which explains their near-constant use of (somewhat infelicitious) tough-guy voiceover.

But both films also have, in no particular order: opening scenes that are out of chronology, extensive use of the stop-the-camera-so-it-looks-like-we-took-a-photo trick, cool period soundtracks and hilarious period decor, hysterical wives (though Penelope Cruz, as Jung's wife, is more attractive than anyone in "GoodFellas"), and an extremely active camera to show extremely active folks. Any one of these could be counted a similarity; the presence of all of them makes it feel like Demme watched the Scorcese film, saw a template, and worked in that rather than exercising any personal creativity.

Still, if you're going to steal from a film, by all means steal from a good one. Demme's tricks may not be his own, but he sometimes uses them quite deftly. It's difficult to create a true sense of narrative arc when the script must move from high point to high point to get all the high points of someone's life into the movie, but Demme comes close to doing it. He often manages to make his points through subtle manipulations - a nearly imperceptible cast of light, an eye barely cocked, a changed posture - which gives the whole film a feeling of both authenticity and authority. Still, he sometimes gets into narrative and tonal ruts which don't work for the film, and his direction occasionally runs away from the events of the film and the performances of his actors.

It's a shame, because "Blow" is one of the more uniformly well-acted films of recent memory. Even people who pass out of the story quickly are portrayed by actors who make their brief appearances memorable. For example, Franka Potente ("Run, Lola, Run") as Jung's first love Barbara does a memorable job of shading her carefree warmth with pathos before dying of cancer 20 minutes into the film, and Jordi Molla infuses his role as Jung's partner with amoral gusto in his American film debut.

Continuing characters have similar success, most notably Ray Liotta as Jung's dad, caring and steadfast and heartbroken all at once: a recognizable human reacting to what must have been, for him, a completely unreckonable situation. On the other hand, Cruz provides enough exhausted pathos for a sad coda, but for most of the film she cannot make her hysterical bitchiness watchable with anything other than her tragic, magnetic beauty. That'll work well enough for most males, though.

Meanwhile, Johnny Depp takes the role of George Jung and erases himself completely. This is an exceedingly subtle performance, and because of it, Jung sometimes almost seems lost in both the endless party going on around him and Demme's energetic (and borrowed) directorial methods. But Depp's scenes with Liotta are more restrained and fare better. As Jung suffers various betrayals and paradoxically becomes more decent himself, Demme tracks Depp, and the increasingly quiet and threatening environments he moves through, with care and artistry. The final scenes of this film depict Jung attempting to reunite with his daughter, suffering a final downfall, and rotting in federal prison, and these scenes are quite moving. Even Demme's depictions of Jung's fantasies come off well, simply because Depp makes Jung's fantasies so real for us.

Furthermore, the parts of "Blow" which are most heavily indebted to "GoodFellas" never do anything less than entertain. However, they don't do much more, and it's hard to grant them too much when you've seen them better-directed in another film. "Blow"'s claim on an audience is definitely its last thirty minutes or so, in which Demme calms himself down enough to serve Depp's performance well. If the end of this film were more of the beginning, "Blow" would just be an entertaining "GoodFellas" knockoff, but the closing scenes mean "Blow" is definitely worth some time and money.

EDITORIAL DECISIONS

I decided not to make any cocaine puns in this review. I didn't make any heroin puns in "Exit Wounds," but that was just because I forgot. Marijuana films seem to lend themselves best to drug punning in any case. So much to consider. I mean, if I was going to do a review following the lines of the one above, I didn't want anyone snorting in laughter midway through. Robin Williams. There, I'm really done.

A number of people have pointed out to me that (a) George Jung has whitewashed himself in extremis in the memoir on which this film was based and (b) it just doesn't matter that a jailed drug trafficker is sad, because he's a drug trafficker. I don't really care about (a); I don't think movies make many claims on truth anymore. As for (b), my basic feeling is, he is in jail. How is he supposed to feel? This isn't "The Widow of St. Pierre," which asserts that people don't have to be punished for their crimes if Juliette Binoche likes them. But a lot of people seemed to feel (b) especially, so caveat rentor.

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