A bit too violent; otherwise, there's plenty of truthful moments in this sad-eyed look at life in the '80s.

Firstborn is the film we knew Apted had in him when we saw the care and craftsmanship in his Coal Miner's Daughter and Continental Divide. It's a find, and Collet's singular performance is its core.

Director Michael Apted ("Coal Miner's Daughter") settles for a movie of pat moralism, a pamphleteer's parable of how drugs destroy families.

This flawed but interesting Freudian melodrama spends about 70 minutes making points and the last 30 minutes losing them.