I have no doubts that Darren Aronofsky is one of the better visual artists filming today. His work on Pi with a shoestring budget establishes that. Requiem for a Dream has some nice visual moments as well – the trailer provides enough to hook us into seeing the film. I just wish that the film delivered more.
On a promising note, Aronofsky was financed for a much larger sum this time without having to hit up his relatives and friends for $50 or so, and he didn’t have to sneak around deserted New York City subways at 3 AM to shoot brains on the steps. Even more promising is the fact that Aronofsky refused to give in to Jack Valenti and his MPAA board and accept a rarely granted NC-17 rating, and Artisan Entertainment backed up Aronofsky’s decision by distributing an unrated version of Requiem for a Dream. Aronofsky is getting more bankable. The big guys of Warner Brothers are investing in him to deliver a new Batman movie in 2001.
Why not? Pi was first rate creative fare, and Requiem for a Dream is getting generally excellent reviews by the critics, who often comment about how well Aronofsky portrays the mental states of the addicts.
I could agree with that to a point if I could bring myself to assume that junkies are essentially zombies without substance. While Aronofsky and his cinematographer combine for some incredible imagery in Pi that lead its protagonist towards ultimate knowledge, they lead us to superficial MTV style imagery on a pointless journey in Requiem.
Maybe that’s part of Aronofsky’s point, but I feel that it’s more likely that he is playing with much the same techniques on a larger budget with a dumber script this time.
Synopsis
It doesn’t take long to realize that Requiem for a Dream boils down to one simplistic message along the lines of Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign of the 1980’s –- “Just say no!” The film begins with junkie Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) pawning his mother’s precious television set for drug money. It’s a scene that has obviously been repeated numerous times.
Harry’s widowed Jewish mother, Sara (Ellen Burstyn), is a lonely woman who lives for her television. There’s not much else in her life, so she gets really jazzed after receiving a phone call notifying her that she may be called to be on her favorite quiz show. She gets her neighbors excited about the prospect, and begins to get ready for her big day.
Ada (Louise Lasser) helps her look younger by dying her hair various shades of orange and red, and suggests her grapefruit diet to help Sara get into her old red dress. That doesn’t work fast enough for Sara, so she goes to one of the world’s worst doctors for diet pills and begins a steady diet of speed. The amphetimines help Sara drop 25 pounds rapidly but also lead to incredible hallucinations – the best sequence being a late night visit from her hungry monster refrigerator.
Meanwhile, we also see Harry, his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), and his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) all degrade themselves through heroin. Their fixes parallel Sara’s TV game show addiction, as each lonely soul can only feel all right about themselves during their drug highs. Identical sequences of nearly subliminal imagery of heroin cooking, a sucking syringe, and dilating pupil introduce us to their drug fixes at least a dozen times during the film. The camera occasionally takes on these trips, but more often shows us the three addicts in their bummed out oblivious state.
Harry is about as delusional about achieving success through drugs as his mother is about appearing on her favorite Quiz show. He keeps talking about making one big score that will make everything work out perfectly. While Tyrone seems to understand that Harry isn’t operating with a full deck, Marion naively believes him and sleeps with Arnold the shrink (Sean Gullet of Pi fame) to get the money. Of course things fall apart, and each character will be left alone to deal with his/her private Hell.
Weaknesses
We appear to be entering a new trend in cinema now with the MTV generation growing more important for attracting box office revenue. Substance and character development often become secondary, as long as the audience is plummeted with plenty of stimuli -– visual rave parties like Natural Born Killers and The Cell. Many of Requiem’s images are pretty to look at, and they make a wonderful trailer for the film. But it seems that Aronofsky does little more than play with the visual techniques now possible with a larger budget without using them effectively to tell a worthwhile story.
Adding to the rave party atmosphere is the soundtrack. Aronofsky retains Clint Mansell from Pi to create the music. The Bernard Hermann style violin sounds are not a bad choice, and I’m sure that Aronofsky deliberately turns up the volume to induce ear violence to create a drug-induced illusion. But the repetitious nature of this technique become more irritating than illuminating, and they just made me more thankful for the end. If the purpose is to keep the audience awake, it didn’t work on the snoring guy behind me – just like we can tune out roaring train engines after a time. I thought about waking him up, but realized that he was probably having a more enjoyable time than I was.
While some of the preachiest scenes do paint some horrors like a grossly infected arm and a sleazy lesbian sexual orgy, our junkies look like models for a now defunct Sears catalog. Jared Leto appears lean and gaunt enough to be a junkie, but Aronofsky could have used some of that larger budget for facial makeup to make him look more authentic. I suppose that our young director succumbs to the theory that the audience needs attractive leads to relate to, but he should have remembered his work on Pi.
We get very little depth to show the motivations and characters of the young addicts. Instead we get a Magnolia style parallel structure that relies more on stereotypes without getting inside the characters with one notable exception. We primarily see incessant subliminal images to indicate when they get their fixes, scenes that show them planning for their next fix, some fast cutting horror scenes, and see each revert into fetal position near the end to symbolize how pitiful they are.
Requiem for a Dream relies more cheesy symbolism to address drug issues, like the age-old argument about how best to deal with our drug problem – enforce the laws or provide treatment and therapy. Let’s see -– we have four addicts, including one African American. I wonder which one will get the jail time?
Strengths
If only screenwriters Hubert Selby Jr. and Aronofsky had devoted a small amount of time to develop the three young junkies like they develop Ellyn Burstyn’s character, Requiem for a Dream would rank as one of the best films in recent memory. Burstyn stands out so much in this film that she may well garner a supporting actress nod. She provides the only “light” moments of the film through her naïve belief that the junk phone call will turn into the highlight of her life and somehow make everything turn out right. We sense her humanity as we witness her frumpy form attempt to fit into a younger dress, watch her tortured looks while attempting the grapefruit diet, and chuckle during her visit to the quack doctor that quickly prescribes drugs without looking at his patients.
Burstyn provides the only heartfelt moments of the film when she confesses to her son that the anticipated television appearance gives her a reason to wake up in the morning. She truly becomes a real person here, a lonely soul living out her days watching her television quiz show only because her family has left her. Especially telling is the scene where she sits in front of her new television set, realizing that she needs more from her son than this gift.
Burstyn’s descent into her Hell is far more believable as well. We are allowed to see her gradually increase her “diet pill” dosage and see her appearance and behavior deteriorate until she finally looks like the junkie ranters that you can find riding New York City’s subways. We end up caring for her like her two weeping neighbors by the end.
Finale
The hallucinatory Pi demonstrates that Aronofsky is a brilliant film visionary, and Requiem for a Dream illustrates that he has a great deal of promise. Many of the scenes are creatively constructed, and I like the way that Burstyn’s character is handled. That is enough to show that Aronofsky can handle a larger budget with established film actors in risky projects.
I realize that most critics are praising this project for its bold journey inside the minds of drug addicts. Most drug users will sense that Requiem merely skims the surface and won’t take it seriously, but that’s the wrong audience for this. More likely this film is designed for the MTV generation, but it may fail here as well with its 102-minute running time that feels even longer. With some expert editing, they can surely make an effective 5-minute music video to show on MTV as they did previously with Pi.
I can envision a campaign on MTV that will convince the public that Requiem is a strong message movie that may even influence the Academy to boldly nominate the film for a few Oscars. The large number of critical raves may even allow the Academy to courageously recognize the film.
Translating Requiem for a Dream into a music video would make a lot more sense than the film does in present form. Just add Frances McDormand shouting “Don’t Do Drugs!” at the end of the video.
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