Falling Up

Plot Summary

The transformation that occurs for Johnny Popp, a Vietnam Veteran from Michigan who is a crack addict on the streets of "Skid Row". After his wife was killed in a car accident, Johnny turned to alcohol and marijuana to soothe his pain and was later introduced to crack/cocaine. Johnny survives day to day off the kindness of others until he is beaten up and left for dead, though that one incident turns his life around for the better. While rehabilitating in a nursing home, he meets Lorraine, a formerly homeless Latino woman, who suffered years of domestic violence and turned to alcohol to self-medicate. After escalated arguments with her daughter, she turns to life on the streets. While self-medicating all those years, she gets cirrhosis of the liver, and ends up in the hospital after coughing up blood. The two lost souls meet in an unexpected place for romance and are nurtured back to health, decide not to return to the streets, get their social security and move into an apartment together.