By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * * )
Kiwi girl makes good ... movie. Alison Maclean's first Hollywood effort (she's known at home for Crush) is based on short stories revolving around the memories of FH (Billy Crudup), a layabout in Iowa City, 1971. One day he meets Michelle. She
introduces him to heroin.
Now the movie slips, and stumbles, and crashes, and floats into how life happens to FH and Michelle (Samantha Morton), and the characters they happen across, like FH's drinking buddy Wayne (Denis Leary) and, when FH gets a job as a hospital orderly, his offsider Georgie (Jack Black, the larger of John Cusack's two record-store mates in last week's High Fidelity).
In the last segment FH goes into rehab (a fellow patient is played by Dennis Hopper. Is that a character part or what?), has a romance with a woman (Holly Hunter) who has bad luck with her husbands and gets a job as editor of a newsletter at an old folks home. And comes out the other side of his experience.
Running time: 110 mins
Rental: Now
