BEWARE SPOILES!
It's hard to describe this film, but in a nutshell it is a case study of an LA woman who has become afflicted with heroin addiction. Very moving, it is a film of several genres: a gritty drama, an indie romance, and a thriller. Like many of the reviewers I am not sure if the character "Will" is a real guy or just a part of Hope's "broken" psyche.
Hope (Heather Graham of "Boogie Nights" fame) is a pretty girl in her 20s who dreams of becoming a rock star with her acoustic guitar. She meets Will on the beach and they hit it off. I know it's stupid in these days to just talk to strangers, but Will (Jeremy Sisto of "Six Feet Under" really doesn't give Hope a choice. I'm with Mari, he is super-sexy and seductive. I love how she described him: "straight out of either heaven or hell". That's pretty much spot-on! He is very hot. Would I have resisted him even halfway as much as Hope? I doubt it!
By and by, though, Will is revealed to be not much more than a pathetic junkie-loser who draws Hope into his "hopeless" world. All he cares about is shooting up. He doesn't want reality, he wants to be passed out all the time. Again, it's hard to say if this is just a side of "Hope" that can't face rejection (she gets turned down by 40 or so record producers) so she just wants to live in a daze?
Either way, Hope gets fed up finally and tells Will to get out of her life. She gets a job at a greasy spoon in town and wants to save money to keep persuing her music goal.
Why does will "always come back" as that bag lady says? Is it Hope struggling with impending relapse? Hope is so angry at everyone around her whose lives seem to be better than hers: there is a hooker who brags about shopping on Rodeo, a rock band who is about to get signed to a sweet record deal, and a film director who tells Hope she is perfect for his new movie. None of these characters is really helping Hope stay on track. She doesn't want to become a whore. She is jealous of the band. She knows that the film director is nothing but a turd who will probably want to get in her pants before he really puts her in any movies. And who knows if it's only a porn?
So is Hope so angry that she suddenly relapses into heroin use to avoid her empty, desperate feelings?
Heather Graham gave a good performance here. I saw her in "Boogie Nights" the film that made her famous, and really she didn't do much except get naked and snort coke and cry . It wasn't that great a performance. In "Broken" she is the center of the story and she does a pretty darn good job of making Hope come to life, in spite of Graham being so gorgeous that it's impossible to believe that a blond goddess like her would not make it in LA doing something besides work in a diner.
Jeremy Sisto was exeptionally good as psychopathic Will. There were a few too many shots of him driving and crying, but aside from that, he was outstanding. I was very moved, almost to feeling sorry for him, when he shot the bag lady. It was amazing to see his reaction to that, like reality hit him that he really killed somebody.
I already gave away too many details. All I can say is I really liked "Broken" and I highly recommend it.
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