The Adderall Diaries (2016)

Great cast! Story was uneven and quite frankly boring at times. I'll watch Ed Harris in anything.

Steven Elliot (James Franco) is a successful author writing about his messed up life caused by his father, who is now deceased. He has a contract for another book, but has writer's block. The murder trial of Hans Reiser (Christian Slater) accused of killing his wife (no body found) catches Steve's attention. Here he meets NYT reporter Lana (Amber Heard) who is an enabler in his pharmaceutical drugged filled life style complete with a desire for pain as foreplay. Things quickly change when dad (Ed Harris) appears at one of his book talks and throws the BS flag. Steven must re-examine his life."True Deception" and "The Adderall Diaries" are the same film. It is about selective or edited memories that we all have and when faced with the truth....well things sometimes change. The acting and drama was good, but the film lacked action or memorable scenes. The idea that things aren't the way they seem and the juxtaposition of Steven's life to that of Hans Reiser needed better clarification. I am sure the book did a better job. The film needed to be edited.Guide: F-word, sex, nudity.

Some scenes are brilliants by themselves and the performance of Ed Harris, James Franco, Amber Heard and Christian Slater are nice to watch. But the crime aspect/court scenes are not linked efficiently to the rest of the movie. It lacks something in the scenario or in the montage, and we can understand why Stephen Elliot (the original book author) was not satisfied with the results. It's not a great movie but it's interesting to see a reflection on memory, perception mixed in with Klonopin, Adderall and Vicodin. It showcase a real aspect of the human experience, it's that we modify our memories with time.

Stephen Elliott (Franco) is upset and embarrassed when he reads excerpts from his latest novel when Neil Elliott (Harris) shows up to let everyone know they are being played as he is not dead as his son writes about him. The father and son duel goes on and we in the audience are not sure who to believe about things that happened in Stephen's life as each makes a lot of sense. The beginning of this movie seemed to indicate we were in for another druggie movie and I almost shut this down. Then the TV on screen shows a murder trial courtroom scene and this captures Stephen's interest. Ours too. The father, Hans Reiser (Christian Slater), is accused of killing his wife and claims he did no such thing and that he always acted on the behalf of his kids. Stephen realizes that his father always claimed the same thing. Stephen believes he can prove his father wrong and tell the world the truth and get his writing career back on track. He gets Lana (Amber Heard) to help him get paperwork proving he was all the things his father said was not true. Later we learn that Stephen takes Adderall among other drugs. We knew about the other drugs, but not Adderall until now. Hmmm……I must say this time James Franco has a role that works for him as he invested himself completely. Kudos. As for Ed Harris, well, he does steal all the scenes his in. He is just that good. But wait ….. there is another actor who seems to command scenes, too, and that is Jim Parrack (Who?) who plays Roger, Stephen's boyhood friend. I'm sure we will see more of him in other movies. Keep an eye. Yes, there is a twist later on and I think we all knew what it would be. The question is will this revelation actually help Stephen? Should the Director have spent more time talking about the effects of Adderall or did the movie do this for us? Inquiring minds want to know. (7/10)Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes. . Nudity: Yes. Language: Yes.