Review of Permanent Midnight (1998) by Corrie F — 22 Jul 2010

?Some stories you remember for the rest of your life, some stories you spend your life trying to forget.? ? Jerry Stahl.

After publishing several stark short stories, real life writer Jerry Stahl (Ben Stiller) moves to Los Angeles where he lands a job as a teleplay writer earning $5000 per week. Jerry also has a heroin habit that grows up to $6000 per week. The film details his struggle with addiction. The story is told in flashbacks through a one night stand between Jerry and a woman named Kitty (Maria Bello). The film is based on the autobiography of the same name by Stahl, who has since become an accomplished novelist in his own right.

Jerry and Kitty meet at a drive-thru window where Jerry works. She instantly recognizes him as a recovering addict (she is also one) and asks him to get a cup of coffee. Jerry splits work and the two go to a hotel room. After some bad sex they pass the night by Jerry telling his story of addiction. The encounter of these two and the presence of the Kitty character is merely just a convenience for the telling of the primary story, which is much more interesting. The current-tense scenes become an inconvenient necessity.

Jerry?s only connection in LA is an old high school friend, Nicky (Owen Wilson). Jerry lives on Nicky?s couch stealing his illegal prescriptions and taking whatever drugs he can get a hold of. Nicky introduces Jerry to Sandra (Elizabeth Hurley), a British citizen who needs a green card to stay in the country. Jerry agrees to marry her for $30, 000 after one meeting. Sandra works in the television industry, and after reading Jerry?s writing she sets him up with a job writing for a TV show titled ?Mr. Chompers,? a parody of Alf. Jerry actually worked on Alf, but the title and characters weren?t permitted for use in the film. Jerry seems to be a terrible fit for the trashy sitcom, and when he goes into the meeting with the shows developer (Fred Willard), they could not be on more opposite planes. Jerry gets the job anyway; he writes his first script based on his father?s terribly boisterous funeral following his suicide. With grimace, he purges this emotionally distressing event and transforms it into cheap comedy. During the same scene there is a well staged bit where Jerry?s mom calls. Jerry is the only one seen and heard but we know from his dialogue that she is heavily intoxicated. She has misdialed and has no idea who she is talking too. It clearly is not the first time and Jerry hangs up on her. This is the only insight we get into his drug seeking behaviour.

Jerry never shows any external frustration from his troubles, he completely internalizes, and it becomes self-hatred. It really is a phenomenal performance by Stiller. The film is worth seeing for him alone. The scene when Jerry first starts using heroin takes place when he picks up a neo-Nazi (Connie Nielson) from a bar and they use together at her place. She knows he is Jewish and has sex with him for degradation. She is a mirror of self-hatred for Jerry and he becomes a regular user after their encounter, and subsequently addicted. After some searching around he finds a regular dealer outside a methadone clinic, where he tries to get help. Jerry manages to hold down his day job writing for ?Mr. Chompers? even though he is clearly an addict. Although eventually enough is enough for his boss and he is fired. Despite his ever growing problems with drugs Sandra falls in love with him and they have a daughter together, unplanned. She sticks by him while he self-destructs, not knowing how to handle him.

The story of addiction is nothing new to books or film. I have not read Stahl?s autobiography so I do not know how the material was approached in the novel. What I really loved about the film was David Veloz?s approach to the adaptation; not to mention Stiller?s performance. The focus is primarily on Jerry using drugs and seeking drugs. All other events in Jerry?s life just become irrelevant pieces of information that fall by the wayside. The junky?s only goal is to get high by any means necessary and the film portrays Jerry?s life exactly that way; as it was. It is only the scenes before and after his addiction, when he is sober that are translucent. That is what makes Permanent Midnight a great film, the way in which the addiction is depicted. Otherwise, without a doubt this would be the standard (perhaps cautionary for some) tale of addiction, and the struggle for redemption.