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Directed By
Darren Aronofsky
Written By:
Darren Aronofsky, Hubert Selby Jr.
Cast:
Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Suzanne Shepherd, Joanne Gordon, Mark Margolis, Michael Kaycheck, Ajay Naidu, Sean Gullette, Samia Shoaib, Peter Maloney, Denise Dowse, Ben Shenkman, Keith David, Dylan Baker, Leland Gantt, Bill Buell, Jimmie Ray Weeks, Gregg Bello, Henry Stram, Stanley Herman, Eric Cohen, John Getz, David Seltzer, Hubert Selby Jr., Darren Aronofsky, Diana Berry, Jack O'Connell, Scott Franklin, Abraham Aronofsky, Charlotte Aronofsky, Janet Sarno, Charlotte Aronofsky, Abraham Abraham, Aliya Campbell, Te'ron A. O'Neal, Bryan Chattoo, Eddie De Harp, Peter Cheyenne, Brian Costello, James Chinlund, Olga Merediz, Allison Furman, Robert Dylan Cohen, Shaun O'Hagan, Heather Litteer, Jenny Decker, Nina Zavarin, Scott Bader, Scott Chait, Daniel Clarin, Ben Cohen, Brett Feinstein, Ricky Fier, Andrew Kessler, Ross Lombardo, Carter Mansbach, Scott Miller, Todd Miller, Joshua Pollack, Craig Rallo, Geordan Reisner, Keith Scandore, Chris Varvaro, Ricardo Viņas, Chad Weiner, Jesse Weissberger, Greg Weissman, Chas Mastin, Ami Goodheart, Jim Centofanti, Lianna Pai
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Requiem for a Dream (2000)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
January 7th, 2009
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'Requiem for a Dream' presents the most devastating and intense depiction of drug addiction ever committed to celluloid. It should really be seen in rehab centers across the country; it shows the depths people sink to acquire the substances they are addicted to, and the awful effects of those substances on their mind, body, and soul. I have rarely been more shaken by a motion picture. Darren Aronofsky's recent success with The Wrestler caused me to revisit this film, which is most likely his masterpiece. It is not simply about drug addiction, but about the process of addiction in general, to whatever one can think of.
Ellen Burstyn is Sara Goldfarb, obsessed with her weight when she gets a mysterious phone call telling her she has been selected to make an appearance on television; she wants to slip into a red dress she wore years ago, and tries a new diet that does not work out that well, since she has a crippling weakness to sweets, and is tempted by nightmarish hallucinations that her refrigerator is some growling monster that threatens to attack her. She starts taking pills that kill her appetite and put her in a state of mania, and she develops a tolerance to them, and gradually consumes more, until she is losing sleep and telling everyone that her dead husband is still alive. Sara has a son, Harry (Jared Leto), who continually pawns her TV for heroin money, pushing it to the same shop on a weekly basis, with the help of his friend, Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). Sara always buys it back, with disapproving nods from the owner. Harry is concerned about his mother, but has his own problems to deal with.
Harry's girlfriend, Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), hopes to open a fashion store, and he wishes to help her with that, by raising the necessary funds. However, Tyrone gets thrown in jail, and Harry has to bail him out, and frequent arrests and assassinations of the neighborhood's major dealers have made it difficult to obtain anything, and Harry, Tyrone, and Marion enter a crushing state of deprivation. So desperate is Harry that he encourages Marion to have sex with her therapist in exchange for money, which leads Marion to become a full-time prostitute, as Harry and Tyrone set off to Florida for a fresh start. On the way, Harry discovers that his arm has become horribly infected from numerous injections.
I would assume that Harry has used too many unclean needles, and that he would probably contract HIV at some point, but this gaping wound is indescribably gruesome, surrounded by discolored enlarged veins, and big purple bruises; when Harry checks into the hospital, the doctor realizes the cause, and calls the police. Tyrone goes to prison and suffers from severe periods of withdrawal, and being harassed by hostile (possibly racist) guards. Aronofsky packed the movie with an astounding number of visual flourishes and camera tricks, resulting in a dizzying, hypnotic, and occasionally irritating experience.
I say irritating because I feel that some of the stylish touches are indulgent, confusing, and superfluous, but they all help to blur fantasy with reality, bringing these characters' delusions to vivid life, alternating between extreme close-ups, long tracking shots, time-lapse photography, split-screen, and rapid-fire editing. The length of individual scenes varies wildly; towards the end, they seem to last only a few seconds, all mixed together in a continual loop of images. There are no happy endings; the film is painful and unforgiving, each character is forced to endure the consequences of his or her decisions, and they seem to embrace this without hesitation. Harry's arm is amputated; Sara is committed to a mental institution after receiving electroshock therapy, she lies catatonic and despondent, it is a sad and pathetic sight.
Burstyn received an Oscar nomination for this performance, and it is easy to see why; Sara is the character I cared about most, her story resonated with me deeply, and I considered her a victim, mostly of a doctor who prescribes controversial and dangerous medicine to her without a thorough consultation. Burstyn, in wigs and fat suits, often looks old, haggard, and unattractive, but then we catch a glimpse of Sara as the ideal version of herself, stunning in that bright red dress, with a slimmer, more youthful figure.
Burstyn brings raw emotional power to the role, and she is the standout, though it is difficult not to be impacted by the rest of the cast, especially Marlon Wayans, who totally drops his comic persona, for the most impressive and substantive performance of his career. Leto and Connelly are terrific. I have only seen the NC-17 version; that utterly worthless rating was bestowed by the MPAA because of sexual content and nudity, though R would have sufficed, and frankly I did not see anything to justify NC-17, a rating that often denotes what the MPAA considers pornography. The music is mesmerizing. I should also mention a brilliant Christopher MacDonald, who shows up as infomercial host Tappy Tibbons; his program is apparently all that Sara watches, and she imagines herself on stage with him, and his audience enthusiastically greeting and cheering her.
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 | Ben
Jan 9, 2009 1:46 AM
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| Great review. This is definitely the mother of all antidrug movies. The fact that it got an NC-17 is ridiculous. It should be shown to those who even think of experimenting with drugs. |
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