Permanent Midnight

Starring: Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Hurley, Maria Bello, Owen Wilson, Cheryl Ladd, Peter Greene, Janeane Garofalo
Directed by: Davd Veloz
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
1998

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The true story of Jerry Stahl, a promising writer with a huge cocaine addiction.

Review:

Tim: I'm not a real big fan of movies about drug addicts. I have little or no patience for people consumed by such activity, and I hate watching movies about losers. That's the guy Ben Stiller plays for most of the film- a loser who screws his life up over and over again because of his addiction to drugs.

Stiller does an excellent job. It's interesting to see him get away from his normal (great) comedy roles. Here, he plays a dark, dark role. He does so with scary accuracy. You see him shoot up cocaine a number of times, and every single one of them is chillingly realistic and vivid. I'm a huge fan of Stiller, and it was interesting watching him in this type of role. I'm very impressed with his performance.

Elizabeth Hurley was equally as excellent in this film. If you know me, you know I'm a big fan of her, not only because she is so beautiful, but because she's an incredible actor as well. She doesn't have too much to do in this besides be the perfect wife- but she plays that role perfectly. Her performance made me not like this movie even more, because I was pissed off Stiller was such a loser (in the film, of course), and lost a woman as perfect as she was.

The film spends most of its time showing Stiller's downward spiral into his own person hell. He battles the addiction, loses, and gets back up again. Of course, in the end he beats the addiction and writes a book about it, but the vast majority of the film is simply him screwing up his life because he's a junkie. Oftentimes it's difficult to watch as he shoots up in the bathroom, and tries to play it off, making up excuses- although you can see in peoples' faces that they know he is full of shit.

Like I said, despite Elizabeth Hurley, this is not my type of film. I give the actors credit, and the film credit for showing a vivid look at a cocaine addict's fall, and eventual escape from his own hell. It's a decent film, but not one I think I want to watch ever again. Thankfully it was short (88 minutes).

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Rushmore, Bedazzled, Keeping the Faith, Meet the Parents, Traffic