Requiem For A Dream DVD > Reviews > I've seen hell and it ain't pretty

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Masterful, engrossing, original
Disadvantages:	A nightmare brought to life

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The director of this movie, Darren Aronofsky, made a huge splash a few years ago with "Pi". Now he's come out with guns blazing in a fierce adaptation of the Hubert Selby novel, "Requiem for a Dream", and it's a rough ride. Imagine watching the first half-hour of Saving Private Ryan stretched out to 100 minutes!

This is about the dreams and nightmares of four people. The centre of action is Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto). Harry's a drug addict, just like best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). Whenever they're short on funds for a fix, they sell off the television belonging to Harry's mum, Sara (Ellen Burstyn). Living in New York, the pair prefer heroin, but they wouldn't turn up their noses at E or crystal meth, either. Neither would Harry's beautiful girlfriend, Marion (Jennifer Connely).

Marion seems to have the most going on. Armed with a decent financial situation, she dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Sara on the other hand usually doesn't dare to dream of any escape from the lonely old ladies of her building until she's notified that she might be a contestant on her favorite game show. Harry and Tyrone only dream of having enough cash and drugs to stop scraping by. You just know it won't end well for anybody.

Sara desperately wants to look presentable for TV, so she dies her grey hair red (orange!). When she finds she can not fit into her favorite dress, she goes to the doctor for some diet pills. Very quickly, she begins to lose weight.

The simple solution for Harry's and Tyrone's problems is to become drug dealers. This seems to work out pretty well, at least for a while. Unfortunately, neither these two, nor Marion notice how their drug habits are creeping up on them.

Those three at least have some knowledge and experience about what they're doing. Sara has no such luck. As her diet pills are basically just speed-based, she is woefully unprepared for the side effects. Worse, she is unprepared for what happens when her body begins to adjust to them.

I watch many films in an average year, all-types of movies from comedy to horror. I've seen some of the sickest movies, some of the most depressing, many that are deathly dull and morbid and i think i can safely say that i could spot a 'fake' gritty drama a mile off - how many of these so-called 'stories from the edge' are just a case of a Writer and Director disappearring up there own behinds? Having said that, the last half an hour of "Requiem for a Dream" may well be the most harrowing 30 minutes of film I have ever seen. Yes, EVER SEEN. Aronofsky is relentless as he cuts back and forth between the downward spirals of four different lost souls. The editing becomes more frenetic as it nears the end and all the characters near the bottom. Selby is a poet of despair (as anyone who has seen Last Exit to Brooklyn can testify), and much of what occurs hits like a hammer. The final shots of this film offer no hope, and no redemption. By the end, I wasn't sure if I never wanted to be near any kind of narcotic ever again, or whether I needed something just to calm the hell down!

The biggest question raised about this movie is, "what's the point?" What's the point of all this despair and ugliness? Many may wonder what could have possibly attracted the director to depict all this madness.

None of the four characters in "Requiem for a Dream" would think they had much to claim as their own. By the closing credits they all find out how much they really had to lose. They used to have hope. They began with their dreams, but each took some shortcuts to attain them. Each of these shortcuts led them down the wrong path. Eventually, they learned they could lose their freedom, their dignity, or even their sanity. In one case, one of our anti-heroes loses something he can never get back. They end their journeys in their own personal hells - alone.

The cast is uniformly amazing. Ellen Burstyn should win the Oscar just for how bad Aronofsky makes her look. It's Aronofsky who really comes into his own here though. "Requiem for a Dream" can connect with its audience at an almost primal level. Be warned though, it's not for everybody. I could sense that many in the cinema with me were completely turned off by it. The director "gets" habitual drug use in an important way: the editing highlights the ritual of use, and the comfort that ritual provides to the user. In the process, he's created a film that unlike most other "drug" films, like "Trainspotting", manages for once not to glorify drug use (no jaunty Blur and Pulp songs here); not even a little bit.

Credit also to Clint Mansell (yes, THAT Clint Mansell of PWEI fame) and The Kronos Quartet who have created a wonderful score for this movie that is akin to Michael Nyman jamming with The Chemical Brothers.

With this movie, Aronofsky sends a couple of messages. One, of course, is about how much drug use can fuel your delusions and what that combination can take away from you. The other message is that the director is now a major American filmmaker. My mind is already spinning just thinking about the "Batman" movie he's about to make - now that genuinly is something to live for.