Addictions and Subtractions

Besides the fact that – once more – a film about Colombia uses as its only resort the many times told story of Medellin's drug related violence during the 1980's, the film's unfortunate failing is the lack of adequate technical resources. If one can survive the monotony of unintelligible and intense sound, wild camera movements and jumpy edition, it is possible to recognize that Gaviria does succeed in insufflating credibility into the characters represented by natural actors, and does well in grasping the mood of the historic moment in which the plot takes place.

The story – specially the first thirty minutes – is utterly predictable and unbearably dull. The slang all along is unnecessarily heavy and boring. Despite all this, at the end one can have the vague sensation that, thanks to the interesting touch of realism and to the good job in actors' direction, the time spent in watching the movie was not completely wasted.