Intrigue

Comfortably Numb shows us Jake's struggle to overcome his alcoholism in a rehab center, Promis. After early difficulties, he starts to make progress when he forms a relationship with a fellow patient, Emma. But they are forbidden to see each other after Jake is confronted about his "sex and love" addiction in a group counselling session. This creates more problems, as Jake doesn't understand that his dependence on the relationship with Emma is actually a barrier to his rehabilitation. A night of excess sparked by drugs makes things get out of hand. Jake decides to leave the center and fight his addiction on his own terms. But almost immediately he goes into a pub. It seems as though Jake will fall back into being an alcoholic, but as the film ends, we see that he has returned to Promis, and is determined to make a full recovery this time.—lightwards

When he is eventually confronted by friends and family over his alcoholism, Jake is sent to the Promis clinic in order to get clean. At the clinic he encounters all manner of addictions with people trying to be normal but trapped behind compulsions or addictions. Jake refuses much of the help, but finds solace in another patient, Emma, who comes in with a cocaine addiction. The two begin a relationship together; but it may just be another way of altering how they feel to avoid reality.—bob the moo