Cocaine: One Man's Seduction (1983)

It could be that the anti-drug movie is one of the hardest to pull off. Even with great setups and decent performances, they can come off as bathos-drenched soap-opera hell ("The Boost" always comes to mind, and it doesn't help when the lead actor acts like he's on crack when he's sober)."Cocaine: One Man's Addiction," while possibly having one of the most ridiculous titles in TV-Movie history, actually works due to the ordinariness and realism of the characters and plots. There isn't anything here that's going to shock or amaze you: just an ordinary guy sending himself down the toilet and wondering how he got there. But it gets to you, simply because it's so low-key. Dick Van Dyke did something similar with "The Morning After," but it never seemed as life-threatening or desperate as it does here.Weaver portrays an aging real estate agent who's finding himself edged out of the company he helped build. While he gives his usual competent performance, the real sparks fly from some of the supporting actors, notably Jeffrey Tambor, as a friend of Weaver's whose binge with coke nearly drove him to suicide, and a teenage James Spader, who brings an easy realism (and pain) to the role of Weaver's disaffected son.With Pamela Bellwood, nicely playing a poignantly injured casual user who initially lures Weaver toward his doom and a mis-cast Karen Grassle, who looks simply uncomfortable throughout.

It's too bad more high-quality TV movies like this aren't being put out on DVD - though, at least, this film is currently available for streaming on Hulu and other sites. This is by far the most concise movie of any kind to deal with the pitfalls of cocaine addiction, much better than big-budget theatrical treatments like "The Boost" and "Blow." Dennis Weaver gives one of his best performances as the harried, self-pitying real estate agent who is convinced by a slightly disturbing (and oh-so-eighties-looking) couple that coke will help him make millions in the luxury home market. In fact, Weaver is so good it has always struck me as strange that his obituaries never even mentioned this work. The supporting cast is excellent (except for Karen Grassle as the cloyingly sweet simpleton of a wife) with James Spader being cast against type - at least, future type - as Weaver's clean-cut son. In fact, were a remake of this movie ever to be produced, it would make perfect sense to have Spader play Dennis' part. A great movie that is well worth looking at online ... or, if you can hunt it down, on VHS!

Dennis Weaver showed unusual shrewdness in picking scripts for television movies that he starred in. He consistently picked top-quality projects like The Ordeal Of Doctor Mudd and Bluffing It. This is another example of a quality tv film that rises above the usual fare. "It will kill her if she finds out...it will kill him if she doesn't" was the ad-line for this movie. Weaver plays Eddie a nice, unassuming real estate agent with a wife and teenage son with the typical hang-ups. Its hard to believe that a 47 year old man could be this foolish, but somehow Eddie gets hooked on cocaine. It starts innocently enough, a kooky acquaintence gets him to try a little. He is basically insecure about himself and cocaine makes him feel like he is on top of the world. He hides his coke in his shaving kit. Its like a snowball rolling down a hill and it just gets worse and worse. You feel like screaming at this man "WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT!!!"His wife finds his coke stash and blames his son and in the most pathetic scene in the entire film, Weaver has to "explain" himself to his son. (Oh I was under so much pressure, thats why I used it!). It reminds me of Going For Broke with Delta Burke. Finally it all comes crashing down on Eddie as his heart flips out, and this scene is really frightning when they rush him to the emergency room. His son finally tells his mother the truth that its his father who is the addict. The most pitiful part of the whole film is when they wheel him down the corridor and he cries to his wife and son "OH PLEASE DONT EVEN LOOK AT ME IM SO ASHAMED!!!" As well you should be!

McCloud ditches stetson and tin flute for funky '80's leather-Jackson-jacket as old Mr Charles begins to burn a hole in his fashion sense as well as pocket. A tour-de-force performance by Dennis Weaver as dead-beat real estate loser Eddie Gant, transformed into a Caddy-driving high-roller thanks to Bolivia's finest export until inevitable excess leads to a pathetic, whimpering finale, a hospitalised Weaver unable to look his family in the eye whilst bubbling, "I'm so ashamed. I'm so ashamed!" Marvelous!