When Sky News called me on Monday afternoon, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was the wrong side of London without a hope in hell of scooting across to the studio to share my opinion on the tragic death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Tragic because it could have been avoided. And on that at least I am in total agreement with Russell Brand whose comment in the Guardian was, I thought, spot on.
Addiction is never far from my mind. My recovery depends on its proximity. Having been living and breathing addiction and its consequences for as long as I can recall, the power of its grip never ceases to amaze me. It attacks mercilessly, destroying lives without compunction and eroding relationships wherever it turns up.
It is an epidemic of almighty proportions, and in spite of awareness and education, shows no signs of abating. Thankfully, it is no longer hiding in the shadows. It has been thrown into the limelight which can, I hope, only bode well. And it has hit the big screen in a huge way.
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) could be summarised as an epitaph to a compulsive gambler. The greed is obscene. As is the language. And the quantities of white powder. It was a full-throttle performance by DiCaprio playing the outta control hedonist and his intoxicated harem (ably supported by the hilarious Jonah Hill and show stealer Matthew McConaughey). 179 minutes of non stop depravity makes for exhausting if entertaining viewing.
The truth behind Belfort's descent is one known to all hardened addicts - he simply didn't know how to stop.
Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and August: Osage County (2013) had little in common, except drugs. Together, these brilliant screenplays highlight how little regard addiction has for background, status or education. It swallows families whole.
Before spitting them out. It's hideous. Just like the cringe inspiring post funeral lunch scene in August: Osage County. The film is a dark, almost gothic portrayal of a family (headed by a pill-popping matriarch) riddled with the illness, and torn to shreds by its effects.
There is a sickening tension throughout and... just as you think it couldn't possibly get any worse...
It does. Revealing just how deeply it penetrates family life, and how it contaminates each and every relationship it comes into contact with. The film highlights how it sweeps through families, taking everyone down with it.
Julia Roberts, who plays the true protagonist Barb, executes the performance of her career though I could not help thinking that, even in the middle of the Great Plains, the hand of some twelve step fellowship must have been outstretched to this family so bedevilled by the addiction monster that someone, somewhere, would have known that support was available.
The film invites you on a deeply moving journey towards an inevitable doom that awaits. The Weston family seem powerless to avoid repeating its mistakes, re enacting the drama and trauma, growing the sadness and the pain. Demonstrated catastrophically clearly is that hurt people hurt those they claim to love most: the real victim is not their dead father, himself a melancholic who appreciated a tipple and killed himself, but rather all those left behind so riddled with the dysfunction that they can hardly grieve whose futures hang in the balance waiting for a miracle that, like Denver, seems a very long way off.
This is a bitter and harrowing tale of a family beset with toxic resentment. They have been torn apart and lack the tools to acknowledge, let alone heal the longstanding damage. I would love to have seen Tracy Letts' Pulitzer prize-winning play on stage at the National. One day, perhaps I will. But for now, I feel the need to recover from the affecting saga and epic performances.
Dallas Buyers Club made for easier viewing, despite an obviously heavy theme. McConaughey and Leto both deliver Oscar-worthy performances: theirs is indeed an unlikely union, born out of a lethal diagnosis in the mid 80s characterised by the fear and mystique that shrouded HIV/Aids hopelessly promulgated by total ignorance.
It depicts the sadly ironic plight of a bigoted homophobe who is himself sentenced to die at the hands of the 'gay virus'. The medics give the rodeo redneck a month, and he's knocking about many years later, having had a new lease of life, courtesy of complementary medicine. And a serious attitude adjustment. Brought about by Rayon, the transgender activist he meets when he most needs a friend.
We watch him journey through self-destruct and beyond - eventually landing up in altruism, and the desire to make a difference. His creative genius is fuelled by the humility he is forced to learn along the way (having never previously done so, even riding bulls). This is a touching memoir of an odd yet convincing couple based on their shared experience of social exclusion and shame.
Castigated as outcasts by their families and social networks they are forced to hit bottom, from where the only way really is up. By pooling their talents and getting creative we follow this unlikely duo as they challenge assumptions and expectations in every direction and take on the FDA in the process.
Addiction is everywhere. There is no ignoring it any more. Philip Seymour Hoffman dying alone, in his West Village apartment in Manhattan surrounded by bags of heroin is surely a tragedy that yells for change. Publicly admitting to have fallen off the wagon having been clean 'n' sober for half a lifetime was not enough to save him. Addiction has no respect for honesty. But recovery does.
RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014): A Master of Stage and Screen
Career Highlights
1992 Gets his break in a first major cinematic release playing George Willis Jnr in Scent of a Woman.
1997 Breakthrough role as Scotty Jnr, the film boom operator in Boogie Nights.
1998 Plays Brandt, the worshipful assistant to the other Lebowski in The Big Lebowksi.
1999 Performs alongside Tom Cruise as the nurse Phil Parma in Magnolia and in the same year Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr Ripley.
2000 Wins Tony Award for the role of Austin in the 'True West' play on Broadway.
2003 Wins Tony Award for James Tyrone Jnr in 'Long Day’s Journey into the Night' on Broadway.
2005 Wins Oscar for Best Actor for the part of Truman Capote in the biographical film Capote.
2007 Academy Award nomination for best supporting role after playing CIA operative Gust Avrakotos in Charlie Wilson’s War.
2008 Academy Award nomination for best supporting role as Father Brendan Flynn in Doubt.
2008 He plays the lead role of Caden Cotard in the drama Synecdoche, New York.
2010 Makes feature film directorial debut with Jack Goes Boating.
2011 Plays manager of Oakland Athletics, Art Howe, in Money Ball.
2012 Another Academy Award nomination for best supporting role as Lancaster Dodd in The Master.
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