James Woods plays a high-strung (what else?) corporate real estate nerd who bends to pressure and develops a nasty cocaine habit, with predictably tragic consequences. The character is essentially a small time twerp with major league ambitions, and before you can say "just say no" he loses his job, his house, his life savings, and his pet dog, but not before engaging in some of the most embarrassing melodrama ever written. Sample dialogue, taken verbatim from a tender moment between a repentant Woods and his forgiving wife (and fellow addict) Sean Young:
Woods, "Don't ever leave me."
Young, "I'll never leave you"
Woods, "Stick with me."
Young, "Till I fall off the Earth...make love to me!" Cue the violins.
Even worse, the anti-drug message is made irrelevant to the people who need to hear it most; once again the peril is associated strictly with a high-income bracket, with shots of the unfortunate couple stung out in their Jacuzzi, and so forth. Woods is too good an actor for such nonsense, and besides, in his usual intense style he behaves like a coke fiend even before taking his first snort.
Woods, "Don't ever leave me."
Young, "I'll never leave you"
Woods, "Stick with me."
Young, "Till I fall off the Earth...make love to me!" Cue the violins.
Even worse, the anti-drug message is made irrelevant to the people who need to hear it most; once again the peril is associated strictly with a high-income bracket, with shots of the unfortunate couple stung out in their Jacuzzi, and so forth. Woods is too good an actor for such nonsense, and besides, in his usual intense style he behaves like a coke fiend even before taking his first snort.