'Adderall Diaries' a look at broken memories, perceptions

"The Adderall Diaries" starts as a drama about a bad case of writer's block before it morphs into an essay on the unreliable nature of memory and perception, then becomes a testimonial to the power of forgiveness - without ever mentioning it.

"We're all victims of our fathers," novelist and amphetamine addict Stephen Elliott (producer James Franco) says. He has turned a tortured childhood under his late sadistic father (Ed Harris) into an inspirational artistic source - until a very alive Dad shows up at a book signing to denounce his son for using lies.

Director Pamela Romanowksy's debut drama - based on Elliott's best-selling memoir - challenges the ease with which Hollywood movies label heroes and villains, preferring a more realistically nuanced (and less commercial) approach to the conflicted density of family relationships.

It's a tall order to make something this ambiguously murky work, and the emotionally tamped-down "Adderall Diaries" with its jumbled storylines, thinly drawn supporting characters and dialogue crutches ("That's awesome!" "I can't do this!") can't quite pull it off.

Christian Slater plays a father on trial for killing his missing wife, a case that acts like a chip-shot to get Elliott out of his creative sand trap.

Amber Heard plays Lana Edmond, Elliott's damaged-goods lover, a reporter for "the Times" (New York? L.A.? High?) who never has a deadline or actually writes reports while Cynthia Nixon is woefully underused as a harried book editor.