When a movie begins as \Pure"" does, with a 10-year-old boy preparing a syringe full of heroin, it's clear that the film is not going to be pulling any punches. Scottish director Gillies MacKinnon's gritty story about the boy and his junkie mother living in London's East End is an intense, harrowing portrait of addiction and the effect it has upon loved ones. The film, showing at the Orpheum now, is not without flaws, but altogether provides a deeply affecting experience.
The film's protagonist is 10-year-old Paul (Harry Eden), a tremendously good-hearted boy who is stuck in an unfathomably bad home situation. His mother Mel (Molly Parker) is a desperately addicted heroin user and makes no effort to hide it from her wide-eyed son, telling him it's her ""medicine."" His father is long gone from their lives, and add to the mix the shadier-than-shady dealer/pimp (David Wenham) who is a constant presence in their lives, and Paul would be forgiven for being the most maladjusted problem child there is.
What makes the film compelling is that he isn't-indeed, he is the only source of hope. Both of the principle actors are superb. Eden makes Paul endlessly resourceful, level-headed and assertive while still maintaining childlike na??vet??, while Parker is exceedingly believable in an easy-to-make-unbelievable role, impeccably capturing the despondency and vulnerability of an addict.
Some of the film's best scenes are when Mel locks herself in her room, determined to quit using and trusting Paul to ignore her desperate begging. As she berates him, saying she wished she never had him, he steadfastly refuses to open the door, knowing it's just the drugs talking. The unlikely reversal of parent-child roles between them is the crux of their relationship.
Despite the emotional power this film commands, it couldn't be said that it's particularly ""real."" The parent-like role he assumes with his mother is fascinating, but also enormously unrealistic. So is his relationship with a waitress/prostitute neighbor (Keira Knightley), which never gets overtly romantic, but even the intimations of such-some of which are fairly direct-are ridiculous considering he's supposed to be 10.
In the end, the unreal nature of this film doesn't really matter. It takes a common subject and brings something new, if not especially genuine, to it. Some leaps of believability have to be made, but all in all it makes for a unique and moving vision.
