Cocaine: One Man's Seduction (1983)

Very well executed

The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

It could be that the anti-drug movie is one of the hardest to pull off. Even with great setups and decent performances, they can come off as bathos-drenched soap-opera hell ("The Boost" always comes to mind, and it doesn't help when the lead actor acts like he's on crack when he's sober)."Cocaine: One Man's Addiction," while possibly having one of the most ridiculous titles in TV-Movie history, actually works due to the ordinariness and realism of the characters and plots. There isn't anything here that's going to shock or amaze you: just an ordinary guy sending himself down the toilet and wondering how he got there. But it gets to you, simply because it's so low-key. Dick Van Dyke did something similar with "The Morning After," but it never seemed as life-threatening or desperate as it does here.Weaver portrays an aging real estate agent who's finding himself edged out of the company he helped build. While he gives his usual competent performance, the real sparks fly from some of the supporting actors, notably Jeffrey Tambor, as a friend of Weaver's whose binge with coke nearly drove him to suicide, and a teenage James Spader, who brings an easy realism (and pain) to the role of Weaver's disaffected son.With Pamela Bellwood, nicely playing a poignantly injured casual user who initially lures Weaver toward his doom and a mis-cast Karen Grassle, who looks simply uncomfortable throughout.

This made for TV has Dennis Weaver at 59 playing a 48 year old real estate agent whose career has hit a dead end. Weaver and his family are as square and corny as it is possible to be and the end screen shot showing them together like a Hallmark card was a perfect summation.I found James Spader miscast... his attempts to be an all amercian macho teenager some how don't work with his quasi metro sexual look. There is something about him I don't care for---he thinks he is hotter than he is is about it.Anyway by serendipity Weaver is introduced unwillingly to cocaine...his career rockets and he is hooked bad. Well things start to go wrong in stereotyped predictable fashion and he ends up ODing during a multi million dollar real estate deal.There is obviously a lot of truth to the subject but this rendition is just too damn corny and exaggerated. It can be fun if you have a black sense of humor.Drug movies are difficult not to appear stereotypical manipulative and exaggerated watch Oslo Aug 31 for a far far better one.DO NOT RECOMMEND

It's too bad more high-quality TV movies like this aren't being put out on DVD - though, at least, this film is currently available for streaming on Hulu and other sites. This is by far the most concise movie of any kind to deal with the pitfalls of cocaine addiction, much better than big-budget theatrical treatments like "The Boost" and "Blow." Dennis Weaver gives one of his best performances as the harried, self-pitying real estate agent who is convinced by a slightly disturbing (and oh-so-eighties-looking) couple that coke will help him make millions in the luxury home market. In fact, Weaver is so good it has always struck me as strange that his obituaries never even mentioned this work. The supporting cast is excellent (except for Karen Grassle as the cloyingly sweet simpleton of a wife) with James Spader being cast against type - at least, future type - as Weaver's clean-cut son. In fact, were a remake of this movie ever to be produced, it would make perfect sense to have Spader play Dennis' part. A great movie that is well worth looking at online ... or, if you can hunt it down, on VHS!

Unbelievable this hasn't been released on DVD yet!Those old enough should remember how controversial 'One Man's Seduction' was, when first broadcast in 1983. Back then, most television viewers could only access about a dozen channels, so these TV movies remained a big deal at that point.It was considered a brave move on Weaver's part to even take this role, despite the rampant cocaine abuse that peaked in mainstream America during the early 1980s. And does he make the most of it! You haven't enjoyed Dennis at his best until you see this one. Also, Pamela Bellwood never looked better than she does here, and should have earned an Emmy nomination for her supporting role as Weaver's unwitting enabler.