BROKEN
Fan Review by Ingo Peltomaa, March 29, 2008
This was a surprise. I was prepared not to like it because it sounded really bad and the trailer shows 2 woman making out. It looked kind of cheap. I was very surprised when I saw the actual film. It was deep and had an important message. I know that a lot of people are very insensitive and disaffected now and will laugh or jeer at the message against drugs. There is spirituality in the message too. It was affecting for me on a personal level. It is more than meets the eye and I think a very good film.
Since I saw this film I have watched more films of Jeremy Sisto and have fallen in love with his work! So I wanted to add more for my review.
This film means a lot to me. I watched it again today and it is a very sad film for me because I used to do drugs. Not heroin, but prescriptions. It took a long time but I got help. when Jeremy says "I feel dead inside" that really hit home. To empathize with these humans, you may have to have lived in their shoes. I know what it is like to feel completely destroyed, to feel like nobody cares and nobody respects you, that you mean nothing to anyone. Then you begin to mean nothing to yourself.
I was sad for Jeremy's character all during the film and wished things would have ended happier for him. But you see you have to ignore that since Jeremy's character is only a part of Hope, the woman on drugs.
Every character is a part of Hope's life. She has sold her own body and soul for drugs because she does not know her worth in this life. She is an innocent girl (the girl on Ecstacy who is asking Hope to help her), a "hopeful" musician (the girl in the rock band), then a loser (2 junkies in the diner), then a prostitute (like the one in diner) and since Jeremy's character really is Hope's Will, she is also the Madam (Linda Hamilton role) because she sold herself to that drug dealer. Next she can become a homeless lady with no Hope left in the world (Tess Harper character), unless she change her life soon.
There is truth to this film in realizing your worth. If you belief you are worthless, how can you respect yourself? If you belief you are a failure in life just because you did not become a rock star, how can you have a happy life? Hope's friend at work Thomas (Michael Goorjian) has learned the lesson from experience in drugs, but he has cleaned up his life. He is Hope's only conscience. In essence he is telling her that always looking into the future is useless. Maybe one day she will become a famous rock star, but maybe she just is not destined for that. The only way to be truly happy in life is to live right now. Because you may not have tomorrow anyway. Always looking elsewhere for happiness will never work.
I lived my own life in this way, always wishing for tomorrow. Never happy in the present. Always wishing for another life and a better life, better job, nicer friends. It was very stupid waste of time.
Will is Hope's dark side. He resurfaces when she is angry, insisting to help her get her dreams to come true. "I want her music career, I want her money and her car, I want a part in that man's movie! I want!" And Will says, "I will take care of everything." And when Hope begins to argue, to tell Will that whenever he tries to help her it only makes her life worse, he gets angry. When she says No he argues Yes! And he is very very willful. The only way to win this terrible struggle is that Hope must break her own Will down and submit her life to God's Will. It sounds like preaching, but it really is very simple. You can be willful and decide to fry your brain because you're angry about your life and how it is not what you wanted, or you can decide to accept life and try to find simple happiness in the world.
That is what this movie is trying to say.
