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Cast: Gregory Smith, Shantel Vansanten, Kaylee Defer, Zack Ward, Brendan Sexton III
Stephen Jameson (Gregory Smith) has had his life planned out for him for quite some time; college, med-school and then rich, successful surgeon. Problem is, he's gone down that wrong path. Drugs have steadily taken over his life, he can't stay sober and he is now faced with telling his parents he's about to fail out of school. The decisions that Stephen makes over the course of one night out with best friend Eric (Brendan Sexton III) land him in rehab. Lucky to still have his life, his parents forcefully convince Stephen into Second Chances Rehabilitation Center. While at Second Chances, he crosses paths with several fundamentally different people whom all share a very crucial commonality, addiction. From his alcoholic counselor Jerry (Jamie McShane) to the recently ousted rock star, Rob Vills (Zack Ward), Stephen will be faced with the mistakes of others and confronts him with his own important decision. Will he find the right path, or will he get lost in the twists and turns of life's many roads?
"In My Pocket" follows the downward spiral of Stephen Jameson, a young man who hasn't really had to make any life decisions on his own because his parents have it all figured out for him already. Their plan for him is to someday be a doctor but what they don't know is that Stephen is heading down a path of drug addiction. After landing in rehab he begins to slowly see things in a new light after seeing others around him t some facts about drug addiction, opening our eyes to just how widespread it is. This immediately gets our attention and from there the story and it's characters take over. I have seen several films that have dealt with addiction before but this has to be one of the more realistic and hard- hitting I have seen. This is a story about real people going through real life issues, you can't help but feel for each and every character in the film. And speaking of Characters, the entire cast did a fantastic job playing them, but if I had to point out a few highlights one would have to be Gregory Smith who gives a haunting performance as Stephen. This is definitely the performance of his career so far. Other stand-out performances came from Kaylee DeFer as Molly, a young woman Stephen meets in rehab who has problems of her own and Shantel VanSanten as his ex-girlfriend who still has feeling for him and still cares.
Director, David Lisle Johnson does a terrific job keeping the film moving at a nice pace and getting across the film's messages. His use of effects and visuals when Stephen is on one of his trips is extremely effective. In the end "In My Pocket" may not be a film for everyone with it's sober material but it's a powerful film that packs a lot of emotion, it's about as realistic a drama as you are going to find so there is no sugar-coating going on here. The film really sucked me into the life of this young man, it made me really care for him and it had me wanting the best for him. From his early struggles to his life changing experience in rehab you really feel for this character and you can sense that he truly is a good person who just happened to walk down the wrong path of life. I hate to use the word entertaining here to describe the film because I wasn't entertained watching this young man's life go out of control but it is a film that gets your attention and it gets you thinking and in the end maybe a film like this saves a life or two as well. At least that is what I would hope but either way if you enjoy a good drama then I highly recommend checking this out today. It had me from it's opening frames and I was left thinking about it and it's characters long after it was over.
Available on DVD, you can order it now HERE.
Released by Osiris Entertainment
**** Out Of *****