Pulpmovies Reviews

Bobby (Frank Franconeri) and Lisa (Mim Granahan) have the perfect life. They are young, successful, have a nice suburban house and are very much in love.

All this changes when Bobby becomes the victim of an attempted mugging. In the ensuing scuffle, Bobby stabs the mugger – repeatedly – and then flees the scene to the safety of his office where he starts to grapple with a range of emotions – fear, panic, excitement, rage, exhilaration – that he doesn’t even begin to understand.

Rather than admit to anyone what he is going through, Bobby starts to silently obsess over what has happened, alienating himself from those around him as his obsession grows, steadily consuming his life until he feels the need to repeat the experience.

Bobby’s obsession is now his addiction…

Addiction is a very ambitious film that deals unflinchingly with the nature and consequences of addiction and there is much to commend it. The film could have easily drifted into ‘psycho-killer’ territory and it’s to the credit of both writer, Joshua Nelson, and the performances of the actors that the film remains such a believable drama.

The script is also very solid, with the addiction theme running throughout – from Lisa’s inability to quit smoking to Bobby’s junkie cousin, Frankie (Joshua Nelson), who provides the clearest parallel between Bobby’s growing obsession and drug addiction.

The acting is excellent throughout, with a special mention going to Frank Franconeri who, as Bobby, does a great job of carrying the film. It was also nice to see that the supporting cast were given enough screen time to become complete characters rather than cardboard victims.

Unfortunately, this brings me to my first gripe.

There are a couple of subplots that didn’t really come to a satisfactory resolution, the one with the waitress being the most noticeable. Given the amount of time spent with the characters I was disappointed with the resolution of this plot thread.

The other problem I had with the film was the number of good ideas that were floated for a scene or two and then dropped – Bobby’s imagined conversations with the dead mugger, the emergence of the bullied child deep within his psyche and his increasing inability to distinguish fantasy from reality are all themes that could have been explored further.

Addiction is a very good drama with a strong script and consistently solid acting although some of the sub-plots could have been tightened up a bit to provide more focus on Bobby as he struggles with and eventually fails to control his growing addiction.

Update : Since writing this review, I have heard from the film’s writer, Joshua Nelson, that there is a new cut that is 18 minutes shorter. If this shorter running time reflects a tightening of the sub-plots, which I am assuming it does, then Addiction could easily get an extra star.

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