Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

isabelle1955 It's taken a while for this British movie to make it to DVD in the USA, (I think it got a limited theatre release), so I feel slightly fraudulent reviewing it 4 years late. Was it worth waiting for? Hmmm. That's a toughie.The problem is, I feel I ought to like this movie more than I do. It showcases a gut-wrenchingly good performance by Molly Parker as the heroin addicted mum Mel, an astonishingly good performance from young actor Harry Eden as the central character, her son Paul, very good support from two of my favorites actors, Keira Knightly as a young waitress, Louise, who befriends Paul, and David Wenham as the local big shot dealer Lenny, with smaller but effective roles by Gary Lewis and Geraldine McEwan.I know this is a good movie; its production values were high, it's well acted, well scripted, more than adequately filmed on location in the East End, and has a very well-meaning and ethical story, about the redemptive power of love. Briefly, ten year old Paul runs a household under the shadow of West Ham United's Upton Park football ground in the multi-ethnic East End of London, while his mother struggles to admit she has a drug problem and then overcome it. Paul finally is instrumental in getting the local dealer "nicked", and in getting his mum to stick with re-hab and the family reunited. Yet I have to admit that I found it vaguely disappointing. A good TV drama, but I can see why it didn't get a wide theatre release.If I was backed into a corner and forced to make comparisons, I might describe Pure as Vera Drake meets Trainspotting. But unfortunately, it doesn't have the impact of either. Pure lacks the black humour of Trainspotting which made that film such a cult classic, and which also made it so shocking. In Trainspotting, one moment the audience is laughing at this bunch of complete losers, and wondering if it really matters if idiots like this choose to kill themselves with drugs? The next moment we are shocked out of our seats by the death of the neglected baby which haunts the film. Pure also lacks Vera Drake's basic moral dilemma, namely is this inconspicuous, rather nice, kind woman Vera, really doing something wicked, when she performs do-it-yourself abortions on desperate volunteers? Does she really deserve to go to jail for it? After all, the rich get away with it. But in Pure, there are no such contradictions or doubts, and really no great moral dilemma for the audience to wrestle with. As shown here, heroin addiction is awful. It has no redeeming features. People die unpleasantly or mess up their lives. Drug addicts make lousy parents. But I think I knew that already. It showed us the intimate details of the devastation that drugs can wreak on a family, but it didn't really say anything new. There is no doubt that the pimp / dealer Lenny is nasty, that the child Paul is heroic and that his mum wants, at some level, to be a decent parent. The film is really just confirming for the audience what most of us already knew.Lenny probably says the only mildly contentious lines in the whole movie, when he says (and I'm paraphrasing) "Heroin doesn't make people's lives lousy, it just helps them cope with the lousy lives they already have." That might have been an interesting lead to follow; why did Mel get into this state? OK, she was widowed young, but plenty of women are widowed young and don't become junkies. Lenny gets his come-uppance, (he deserved jail for his Argyle sweaters alone, never mind the drug dealing...), mum gets off heroin and Paul gets his family back. It's all very well presented and yet it doesn't make for great drama, with the possible exception of the scene where Paul attacks Lenny's Audi with a brick and then lays into Lenny. I'm struggling really to pin it down, but Pure didn't quite work for me.One level on which it failed for me was the incredibly banal soundtrack. I watched Pure with my 16 year old son, (I often use my kids as sounding boards for movies, because I realize as a middle aged woman I'm not a statistically important part of the demographic) and he said the soundtrack reminded him of a movie he saw recently called Grizzly Man, in which a guy goes to study bears in Alaska and gets eaten by one. Certainly to me, the sound track seemed more reminiscent of the National Geographic Channel than the East End of London. A sound track should enhance the movie or else not be there at all. I found Pure's intensely irritating and rather trite, and felt most of the best scenes were the ones without any music.All the performances were faultless. It was an interesting role for Keira Knightly, Molly Parker and Harry Eden were superb, and Australian David Wenham proved again that he does a great turn as a thug. (He also nailed the accent perfectly, which I find interesting. Because this is where I have to admit that I'm an Essex Girl myself and I grew up not far from where this movie is set. Although I've been away from London for 30 years, and living in California for 9 of those, I still retain a slight Essex accent. And yet here in California I'm frequently asked by the locals what part of Australia I'm from. I guess the accents are closer than I'd realized.) I watched Pure twice in case I picked up some interesting nuances second time that I missed first time, but no. It did nothing more for me second time around. Well meaning movie, but not especially memorable unfortunately. I'd watch it in preference to most of the dross on TV here, but I can't pretend it's a great film. Sorry...!

duerden60 A great deal of crime in the world is drug induced, so those of us who lead a sheltered life have little time for those who indulge in them. However, watching a film such as this does make one stop and think, that in itself reason enough to view.There but for the grace-etc. The performances of all concerned were truly amazing, I am used to Molly Parker giving her all, but this was acting at the highest level, Harry Eden was brilliant. Others have picked out performances, but I haven't seen Geraldine McEwan mentioned, terrific as Gran. Films like this don't usually get awards, all I can say is-they should. Wonderful stuff! (I have voted nine as I reserve ten for that elusive perfect one that comes along once in a while.)

ollie501 PURE - 2002 (Dir Gillies MacKinnon)Reviewed By Ollie - Jan 2004CONTAINS SPOILERS Those who have seen the remarkable of performance of Harry Eden in `Real Men' will doubtless be familiar with his capable handling of powerful roles. `Pure' is British drama, set around a London based single mother and her two sons, Lee and Paul (as played by Eden). A promising start to the film shows young Paul preparing drugs for his heroin addicted mother, and handing her the syringe. A desolate look appears on his face as his mother confesses to having forgotten his birthday.Billed as a gritty and powerful drama, this movie is good, but hardly outstanding. Eden's performance is superb, given the material he has to work with. For the best part of the film young Paul looks for all the world as though he is hardened to the situation in which he lives. There is a empty, tired and vacant gaze behind his eyes, reflecting the impact of living with a drug addicted parent.The film is not without gentle touches of humour. The scene in which Mel (played adeptly by Molly Parker) hands over the child, Rose, to the doctor on the bus, is both sad, and gently amusing, as Paul glances back to the doctor warning him `don't give her pepperoni - it gives her the shits'.From here the film delves into the world of heroin abuse, with detox scenes and the inevitable problems that arise from them. Unfortunately this is where the film is ultimately badly let down.The film is good, but that's as far as it goes. It could have been so much better, and barely warrants its 18 certification. Harry Eden is an outstanding actor, and this film could have been such an opportunity to explore his vast potential. Sadly though, this role is a little like giving Michael Schumacher a Mini - you just know that Harry could have done so much with the part, given the chance. He is denied the opportunity to portray any real emotion - it is only in the last 15 minutes in which we see this world weary ten year old cry. Whether this is intentional is difficult to say, as the direction of the film doesn't have quite the impact to allow any true sense of desperation.The detoxification is reasonably well handled, but is not shown with the impact that it would genuinely have. Overall, the main problem is that the film is too likeable, and nowhere near uncompromising enough given the subject matter. Paul's introduction to heroin, to `feel what his mother feels', seems to have been put in for shock value, and is unconvincing and unrealistic, and using it as his mothers inspiration for kicking her habit is clichéd, nearly as much as the family suggesting `pie and eels' for a celebration meal is a jaded and stereotyped image of `the real cockney'.For all its faults though, `Pure' is a decent enough film, with characters you can warm to, and is generally a very likeable film. Sadly it is this likeability that detracts from the seriousness of the subject matter, and one cannot help but feel that Harry Eden is not given enough room to allow his character to develop. This means that the viewers are robbed of the opportunity to see this young actors remarkable talent at its full potential. A well earned 7.5/10 for this well meaning, but sugar coated movie, which could have been so much more...Ollie

ripperlyn I was so impressed by this film. At first glance, it's just another junkie flick, as another user has implied - but there's a real humanity to this film that movies like "Trainspotting" and "Requiem" are lacking. I think this is largely due to the absolutely *stunning* performance of the main character - probably one of the best child actors I've ever seen on screen.