Wasted youth takes tragic turn in 'Alpha Dog'

Kidnapping rule No. 1: Never parade your victim in front of a good chunk of Southern California. Rule No. 2: Kidnapping is a federal offense.

The lost souls in "Alpha Dog," a based-on-reality crime drama about California rich kids who spend their days getting high, drinking, working out, partying and acting like thugs, spend most of the film violating rule No. 1 and freaking out as rule No. 2 materializes through the haze.

Fueled by a gangsta-rap soundtrack, "Alpha Dog" beats us over the head with its portrait of wasted youth, clueless parenting and a society so self-centered that reality is something encountered in between drunken stupors and bong-smoking highs.

Such is the world of a group of wealthy Southern California twentysomethings who kidnap Zack Mazursky (Anton Yelchin), the 15-year-old half-brother of a skinhead addict who owes money to the gang's drug king, Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch). Seventy-two hours later, Zack will be dead, the victim of a senseless murder and a series of inane decisions that lead to that horrific moment.

At first, Truelove and his best pal, Frankie Ballenbacher (Justin Timberlake), figure they'll just keep their "stolen boy" around until his big brother Jake (Ben Foster, in a frighteningly real performance as a crazed skinhead) pays Truelove the $1,200 he owes him for pot. Soon, abductors and victim are traveling the California coast, stopping at friends' homes, dropping in on parties, hanging out at their parents' ritzy homes. Zack, who longs to escape the constraints of his seemingly idyllic home life and loving mom (played by Sharon Stone, who has a powerful sequence near the film's end) is more than willing to go along with his abductor pals. He wants to be one of them. The world of sex, drugs and willing young females is just too attractive.

The story is based on the real-life 1999 kidnapping and murder of Nicholas Markowitz (Zack in the film). The ringleader (Truelove in the film) was named Jesse James Hollywood (oh, yes, he was), and he would become the youngest man ever to make the FBI's most-wanted list. After five years on the run, Hollywood was arrested in Brazil, and his trial is set to start later this year. (The four others arrested for the crime all have been tried and convicted, and they received sentences ranging from life in prison to death row).

Written and directed by Nick Cassavetes, the film takes on a quasi-documentary look, with grainy effects, unsteady camera shots and quick cutaways. It is part reconstruction of events that actually took place, part filmmaker's dramatic license. But that's imperative if we are to be carried along for the 117-minute ride. When the film project began two years ago, prosecutors in the real-life case opened their files to the filmmakers, which prompted a slew of legal action against the studio and Cassavetes for possibly damaging the case against the then still-at-large Hollywood. Defense attorneys even sought an injunction to keep the film from screening at Sundance last year (the film played as scheduled).

While Hirsch and Foster ably carry off their portrayals of warring dopeheads, the movie's biggest surprise is Timberlake, who finds the heart and soul of the not-so-tough Frankie and makes him the film's most complete character. Timberlake is not the pretty-boy musicmaker here; Frankie is tattooed, foulmouthed and an all-around loser who would do anything to shine in Truelove's eyes. Then again, all the guys in the film are lost boys desperately searching to be big men, fueled by marijuana, liquor and trampy females who smile and stroke their immature egos. That it's all based on a true story is the saddest dose of reality.

Idle time and idle minds are generally not a good mix, especially when drugs are involved. In the fall of 1999, the mix also included kidnapping and murder. What a waste, indeed.