Final Recovery

Addiction can destroy humans lives, no matter if you are addicted to drugs or alcohol. I have witnessed this myself when i lost a childhood friend of mine called Marcus who i went to school with for many years. He had a well paid job at Volvo Trucks, a nice apartment and a lovely girlfriend who i met several times. But just before Swedish Midsummer weekend in the year of 2010 i got a phone call from my mother. She was completely devastated telling me that Marcus was found dead in his apartment from a drug overdose. I remember i completely froze all of me, i could not believe a word she said. My childhood friend gone just 32 years old. I knew Marcus had tried drugs in his early 20´s but i didn´t know he got deeply addicted. You see he was good at hiding it in public, at least the moments we were seeing each other in our youth. But i still remember all the good times we had and i do miss him, he was my friend. Sometimes i wish i could have done something to help him from his problems but he never showed any signs of addiction. He must have learned how to hide the addiction like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, 2 different personalities. Addiction is not always easy to see and some people learn how to try and hide it. There is a perfect example of this in the 2012 film called Flight with Denzel Washington playing air pilot and Captain William "Whip" Whitaker. He uses both cocaine and drinks alcohol in his private life. While he is supposed to fly a SouthJet Air flight, co-pilot Ken Evans ( Brian Geraghty ) takes over while Captain William discreetly mixes vodka in his orange juice and takes a nap. William wakes up as the airplane is crashing because a mechanical fault and he still manage to land the plane in a field. As he wake up in a hospital he finds out 96 passangers survived out of 102 aboard the plane. An investigation begins on the crash and they find out his alcohol level during the flight. This is a very well made film about addiction, but also the damage addiction can cause not only to yourself but also to people who care about you. A must see from legendary director Robert Zemeckis. Speeking of director´s who keep making quality films we have to talk about director Harley Wallen. I have seen so many of his quality films over the years such as Eternal Code, Ash And Bone, The Devil´s Left Hand, Beneath Us All and of course one of my personal favourite TV series known as Tale Of Tails. He have a new film out called Final Recovery that seems to be connected to the subject of addiction as well as rehabilitation for addicts. A very interesting plot indeed. Is this another quality film from Harley Wallen or did i have too high expectations for Final Recovery?

Drug addict Rodney ( Jasper Cole ) have a long history filled with bad decisions. He checks into the secluded Sage Treatment Center, hoping for a second chance. After a while he sees something isn´t right. Patients vanish without explanation and the facility´s matron Louise "Nanny Lou" Stamey does not want to answer any questions. Rodney begin to dig deeper into the truth what is really happening at this facility.

If you think that this film is only about the subject of addiction this film actually have a diffrent twist included into the plot. We do have people struggling with addiction which is a very important part of this film, but the surprising twist actually have to do with how the people working as this rehabilitation clinic if they really are helping the patients or perhaps damage them instead. This is the most interesting part of Final Recovery where you see that these addicts are not in a safe place, while this is supposed to be a place where they should be getting the right treatment. The medical treatments is clearly something that doesn´t look serious in this facility. There are several interesting characters in this film i feel that i should mention so let´s start with the addict known as Rodney ( played by actor Jasper Cole ). You can tell that Rodney have been a drug addict for many years, where his only hope is to get high and everything else doesn´t really matter. I feel that this is a strong acting performance from Jasper Cole who manage to portrait an addict with facial expressions, body language and sounds like an addict. The facial wounds also capture the rough life of an addict, where you can tell he´s gone through some really rough moments. Actress Cherish Lee as the wild and loud character Tonya is another great performance that captures the personality of an addict. Cherish especially capture that personality through her wild body movement. The most powerful acting performance comes from actress Charlene Tilton ( legendary actress from iconic TV series DALLAS ) playing the disturbing character Nanny Lou. This is clearly a woman who should not treat any patients and the performance definetely capture her evil personality. Actress Kaiti Wallen just keep getting better and better for each film i see her acting in, and i really appreciate her realistic performance as the character Cindy. Harley Wallen have a role as well and of course he deliver as officer Jacob Cramer ( Harley always look cool on the big screen ). Final Recovery is a cleverly put together medical thriller that tries to show the dark side of addiction but also the dark side of medical treatments as well, how easy it is to use humans who are already struggling with their lives. Who cares if some addicts dies, who would miss them? Harley Wallen proves once more that he is a talented film maker who knows how to tell realistic stories and captures the dark side of humanity. If you are going to see a good thriller this summer i can tell you right now Final Recovery is a great choice. Addiction is a subject that needs to be talked about and this film might help people to see different angles of addiction.

Rating: DDD