The greatest movie ever made..!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mel (Molly Parker) is a mess after the death of her husband. She's a junkie being taken care of by her 10-year-old son Paul. Family friend Vicki (Marsha Thomason) dies in an overdose. Paul is forced to confront that his mother could die from drugs. Her friend Lenny (David Wenham) feeds her the drugs. Paul befriends waitress Louise (Keira Knightley). Mel decides to quit Heroin cold-turkey with Paul helping out but Lenny stop it. Paul's grandparents tries to get him away from his mom.The kid is wonderful in this. Of course, he's given a really juicy role. Molly Parker does a great job as a junkie in a British accent no less. The story is filled with humanity and it flows through the kid. Knightley has a co-starring role as a junkie grifter waitress. It's interesting to see her character presented at first as a savior for the kid.

Normally I am depressed by these kind of movies. There is a place for a look at the worst side of life but I don't usually seek them out for entertainment. However the performances in this are uniformly excellent and I watched it in spite of my prejudices. Particular praise goes out to Molly Parker and David Wenham, both from other parts of the world, but playing Londoners convincingly. Paul, wonderfully played by Harry Eden, is a fully fleshed character and Eden is unusually good for a child actor who, in effect, is carrying the whole movie, as he is in practically every scene. If anyone needs to see the misery that drugs cause they could do little better than watch this film.

The most important aspect of this film is how it focuses on a 10 year old boy and his problem with his heroin addicted mother; not on a mother dealing with a boy using drugs.Keira Knightley is the star power, but she's neither the sexiest nor the most slender; that goes to Molly Parker (Deadwood)and it's easy to see how she could attract men to enable her ongoing drug use. Her acting is as good as it gets but never falls into the trap of excess usually used to portray drug users. The portrayal of the boy Paul is also very real for being matter of fact rather than excess. The cinematography in a working class London neighborhood does not overdue the squalor but shows a pretty nice place to live ---- for those who haven't abandoned religion, patriotism, the work ethic, self-respect and other traditional English values.Widespread drug use, beginning with heroin, began with MY generation, those who were young adults in the Kennedy Era. Heroin spread like uncontrolled wildfire across America --- from the inner cities of New York, Chicago and LA (the only places where drugs were common in 1960) into every town in America. The #1 carrier of the disease were the college kids --- spoiled brats who embraced heroin with open arms and spread it directly or indirectly to their children. Hippies, with their aversion to soap, spread their false credo of Peace and Love --- if only the world was stoned we'd all love each other. Hippies are just so Yesterday, but their poison legacy lives on.Children dealing with stoner parents; that's the reality. Young people today have little idea how rotten things were in America in their parents' generation. Drugs and crime everywhere. When kids like Paul in this movie began to rebel against their corrupt and useless stoner parents; that's when things changed. How nice that this film gets it right.

...is still a junkie flick. Such is "Pure" in which Eden, a ten year old son of a heroin addict, occupies nearly every scene as the film explores the highs and lows of the mother/son drug tainted relationship. The opposite of "gritty", this sugar coated Brit flick delivers a solid performance by Parker as the mom/junkie who has to go through the obligatory lifestyle decay, agonizing withdrawal, courageous recovery, pitiful setback, etc. However, the film does little to distinguish itself and those who have seen junkie flicks before may well get the feeling "Pure" is not sufficiently creative or unique to make the viewing time well spent. (C+)