BROKEN VESSELS
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Unapix Films/Zeitgesit Films Director: Scott Ziehl Writer: David Baer, John McMahon, Scott Ziehl Cast: Jason London, Todd Field, Roxana Zal, Susan Traylor, James Hong, Patrick Cranshaw
In New York the emergency medical technicians who drive ambulances for critically ill people are complaining. Their jobs are being taken away by the fire department, whose employees are doing the job of resuscitating folks with heart attacks, people in shock from auto accidents, and fellows with gunshot wounds. In L.A., apparently, the paramedics are still on the job, but what is most amazing is that according to Scott Ziehl's film, "Broken Vessels," these important workers are taking home minimum wage despite the importance of their job and the requirement of a college degree to hold such a profession.
People earning little more five dollars an hour typically work two or more jobs to make ends meet. Tom (Jason London), who has been driving an ambulance long enough to be the senior person in a small company, sells drugs on the side, which is bad enough. What's worse is that he also does drugs, and does them on the job--smoking what looks like crack which he takes in an unconventional way. Jimmy (Todd Field) has the misfortune of being teamed up with Tom. Jimmy is a clean-cut lad from Altoona, Pennsylvania, recently out of college, who has moved out west to L.A. to make a clean break. He has a skeleton in his closet whose bones rattle each time cinematographer Antonio Calvache teases us with a quick flashback to Pennsylvania's Amish country.
Recent films about the drug world have contributed some original takes on substance abuse. "Trainspotting," considered by some to be pro-narcotics, has one character say that heroin will give the taker a high equivalent to an orgasm multiplied 1,000 times. "Leaving Las Vegas" uses two top actors to capture the poignancy of a down-and-outer on a suicidal mission to America's gambling capital. "Permanent Midnight" focuses on a guy who is derailed from the fast track in the movie business because of his constant need to shoot up. The trouble with "Broken Vessels," by contrast, is its conventionality. The movie looks from beginning to end like the sort of film you'd show to high- school kids about the tragic consequences of taking substances that speed up the heart or quiet anxieties. Never in a single moment do we find out what makes narcotics attractive to these people. They take the poison because they are addicted, yet even at the moment of the rush, they seem to feel nothing but relief from the pangs of withdrawal.
The stereotypes include an old man, Tom's grandfather (Patrick Cranshaw), who lives in a nursing home and relies on bi-weekly visits from Tom to keep him from climbing the walls. Yet another is the obligatory good girl, here played by Roaxana Zal who, as Elizabeth the nursing intern, is attracted by Jimmy but is put off after being stood up for a date with no explanation. Later she re-appears to offer him the option of checking into a clinic to get clean.
Scott Ziehl trots out the fast girls, the violent sellers on the street, the justifiably irritable manager of the ambulance business, Mr. Chen (James Hong)--who offers a comic touch to the proceedings. The film excels in showing Jimmy's descent under the satanic guidance of his partner and mentor, Tom, from Mr. Clean to a thoroughly burnt-out case. Todd Field and Jason London make a good, credible pair, even giving the impression that there's a straight line from drinking beer out of a bottle to snorting, sniffing and shooting the harder stuff. But "Broken Vessels" is weighed down by its didacticism. If addicts puke behind their living room sofas without bothering to clean, lose girls friends, jobs, money, and even get shot at, what did they ever see in these chemicals in the early stages? Ziehl never shows us the attraction of the substances--only the freaks, the promiscuous women, the babbling neighbor, even an explosion in a drug factory that blows up a ramshackle house. And despite the use of the occasional fast-motion photography and hallucinogenic frames, the story is told in a surprisingly prosaic manner.
Rated R. Running Time: 90 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten
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