After another OD, the junkie Jane (Samantha Mathis) finds that she is HIV-positive. When she leaves the hospital trying to raise money for a dose of heroin, she is followed by the fifteen year-old Tony (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who protects her in difficult situations. The boy helps her to get free of her addiction, and she finds that he is alone without a family and terminal with AIDS. They get close to each other and form a firm bond.
"Sweet Jane" is a touching and heartbreaking low-budget movie, supported by a realistic melodramatic story of addiction, friendship, illness and redemption and magnificent performances of Samantha Mathis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The plot is very simple and beautiful and works perfectly, based on two opposite characters that have in common a lethal disease. Jane comes from the upper-class, went to college supported by her parents, but lost everything with her addiction and is a cold person, without loving any person. Tony is an orphan born with HIV transmitted by his father to his mother, has no education but common-sense. He follows Jane believing she is an angel, but in the end he actually becomes her guard-angel, saving Jane from the drugs and making her a better woman. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Vivendo no Limite" ("Living in the Edge")
"Sweet Jane" is a touching and heartbreaking low-budget movie, supported by a realistic melodramatic story of addiction, friendship, illness and redemption and magnificent performances of Samantha Mathis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The plot is very simple and beautiful and works perfectly, based on two opposite characters that have in common a lethal disease. Jane comes from the upper-class, went to college supported by her parents, but lost everything with her addiction and is a cold person, without loving any person. Tony is an orphan born with HIV transmitted by his father to his mother, has no education but common-sense. He follows Jane believing she is an angel, but in the end he actually becomes her guard-angel, saving Jane from the drugs and making her a better woman. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Vivendo no Limite" ("Living in the Edge")