The film charts the rise and fall of legendary drug wheeler dealer George Jung who is currently locked up in a Florida penitentiary serving the rest of his sentence. The story of Jung's rise from relative rags to the most incredible riches begins way back in 60's Massachusetts where the Jung family had their home. George Jung got a real taste of the swinging 60's when he moved from the East coast over to California - the heart of the hippie scene. There Jung progressed from beach bum to small time marijuana dealer where he found the profits difficult to keep track of.

He progressed from small time and worked his way up the ladder until he was supplying the entire College State of Massachusetts with dope, having difficulty keeping up with the voracious and rapidly increasing demand. Then, momentarily Jung's luck ran out as one of his escapades ended up in a bust (grassed by Mom) where he ended up doing time in a Connecticut prison. However like most prisons, this one was also just another finishing school for criminals and all it did was fine tune Jung's criminal scheming tendencies to an art form. He linked up with a fellow jail bird and through this Colombian ex car-jacker he was introduced to the world of cocaine and the likes of Cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Slowly Jung gets drawn into the amazingly decadent and luxurious lifestyle of the cocaine rich and famous and earns a position as Escobar's main distributor in the US, a market worth millions and millions of dollars. However as Jung edges up the ladder in the drug stakes so does the danger that he courts, not only from the Drug Enforcement Agency that has Jung looking increasingly behind his shoulder but also from other potential drug barons who are keen to have a piece of the super-lucrative pie. Jung soon finds himself being caught up in the web of deceit that is the very fabric of the drug barons code book of ethics - there are no ethics!

The film spends much of the time dealing with its subject in a pretty lightweight, non serious manner without going into any moral issues concerning the drug trade - that is saved for the rather turgid second half of the movie. Jung is played by the admirable Johnny Depp as an opportunist who wasn't as bright as he seemed perhaps and one who certainly didn't know when to call it a day. The film lacks focus as it meanders between being a biography, a drug thriller, romance or a poignant drama about a son's relationship with his parents or a fathers ruined relationship with his daughter.

The acting is decent at best with Depp managing to rise above his material turning in an admirable and typically unglamorous performance as Jung while Cruz rants, raves, (over-acts)snorts and cusses with typical Iberian flair and looks wispily delectable for the most part. The film lacks intensity however as it ends up failing to score on the moral front and doesn't manage a particularly good job at being a thriller or an study of failed relationships either. What it does do is glorify its rather sleazy lead character as being a wonderful, kind hearted, unlucky sort of fellow but failing to show the underside of how his activities devastated people and homes or that he ever struggled with a moral dilemma. Maybe he didn't, in which case George Jung is a far less interesting character than one would have imagined.

The film despite its glorifying of its lowlife central character is not a bad one, but nothing to get excited about. Actually it qualifies as an enormous disappointment and the lasting memory after the film is over is of having waded through two hours of meandering sentimental mush. Not recommended.