The surface of the story is fairly simple. What is difficult is the emotional minefield that the two leads must traverse in order to simply survive their respective ordeals. The problem is that it is such a downer that I had a hard time breaking into the material. It is brutally honest. The issues are not sugar-coated, they are scabs ripped open and exposed to burning antiseptic that is poured over them only to have the scabs ripped away again.

The performances on all fronts are very strong. In particular, Benicio Del Toro is excellent. I could feel his pain, his desire to do the right thing. He is a vibrant character who doesn't glorify the drug-addicted lifestyle. Just watch his eyes, there is an extraordinary depth there. Halle Berry, who has always struck me as a pretty face with serviceable acting skills, puts in a very good performance here, although there were times I just wanted to smack her character for the things she was doing. However, I am guessing that was part of the point.

As for the reasons why I did not like the movie, well they can all be targeted at the creative team. There was an annoying self-aware, Lifetime movie quality that bothered me. Drugs are bad, it is tough to lose a loved one, look at me, I can make you feel bad. Combine that with the extreme overuse of extreme close-ups. How many eyeballs do we need to look at? Shots of sad eyes (and various other parts) are shown to fill nearly the entire frame. I found it to be very annoying and only exist to serve the director's desires rather than in service to the story.

Bottom line. These close-ups and a self-aware aura permeated the majority of the film. At times I longed for it to be over, but only after Benicio's next scene. I have to rank the experience as a frustrating one. Strong performances and raw emotion competing with "look at me" direction. I can only recommend this if you want to feel bad while staring at Halle's eyeball on a number of occasions.

Mildly Recommended.