(Vague Spoilers...?)<br /><br />I really wish that this genre of 'tragic true story' could be wiped from the face of this earth - nothing makes me more sick than to see what could essentially be a moving (though I'm rarely moved, especially where 'the media' and its monkey-slaves are concerned) story ripped to pieces and turned into a vomit-inducing cheesefest of a film.<br /><br />Obviously, because it's a true story, everyone's nervous to criticise the storyline, to suggest that just perhaps, it really wasn't that tragic. I wasn't aware of the story before I saw the film, so I don't know how true to life it all was, but let's just say I felt no sympathy for the "angelic", martyr-like character of Veronica and her irritating personality traits. Perhaps Cate Blanchett's acting just didn't do her justice. Right from the beginning, as I watched her tiptoe through a sea of filth and syringes (oh, and filthy syringes), gasping at the junkie children all around her, I knew this film would be hideously over-the-top and unrealistic, desperate to yank that salt water right out of the audience's tear ducts.<br /><br />The fact that she herself was a self-confessed lover of speed and felt no shame at her blatant disregard of the law (laws which are there to - wait for it - STOP PEOPLE FROM DYING) where 'trivial matters' like speeding are concerned hardly bumped up my sympathy-meter. Sorry to say this, but I found the "EVIL" drug-dealers far more likable.<br /><br />In short, I hated it. But as always, everyone else will love it.