Everyone has his or her addictions, right? For some, it’s crack cocaine. Others can’t function without their morning cup of coffee. Love, contentment, approval, happiness; Wish for any of them too hard, and you find yourself an addict. Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream displays how rampant addiction affects the lives of four interlocked characters, and it’s not a pretty picture. But that’s exactly why this is an excellent movie. While several scenes are of unnerving discomfort, the intention is never simply to shock. A filmmaker can ‘stun’ an audience whenever he wants to; it’s his party. The tough part is to tell a story and prove thematic points by using the shock value responsibly.
Harry (Jared Leto) is a heroin addict. When we first meet him, he is appropriating his mother’s television set to hock for his next ‘fix’. Long-suffering mother Sarah (Ellen Burstyn) screams with her son, but never really gets angry with him. Five minutes later, she’s simply buying the TV back. Harry’s best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) also participate in Harry’s hypodermic activities, and the three eventually hatch a plan: To become dealers on their own and make thousands of bucks! Meanwhile, Sarah has received a strange phone call, promising her a spot as a TV contestant. Alone in her home, she quickly begins preparing for her night on TV by popping diet pills.
This is a movie of several excellent components, most notably a handful of excellent performances, a restrained yet visually stunning directorial style, and a hypnotic musical score. While a handful of scenes linger a bit too long, that’s a nearly pointless complaint in a movie so strong on nearly every other level. Requiem for a Dream is not a ‘fun’ movie, nor is it merely a drug-related melodrama. This is a smart movie about how addiction shackles people, for movie fans who can handle the heavy stuff.
Movies about young, strung-out junkies are not new. Movies like Another Day in Paradise, Rush, and Kids all addressed similar issues, to varying degrees of success. The tough part is not simply showing the ugliness of heroin addiction. Just watch someone shooting up and you’re seeing a tragedy. What’s difficult is presenting honest characters, and not apologizing for their actions. They’re not heroes or villains in Aronofsky’s hands, and how you feel about these characters lies with you. The screenplay doesn’t guide you, and any movie that forces you to decide things for yourself is always a welcome change.
Director Aronofsky presents several unique sequences, and this movie proves that his excellent debut ‘Pi’ was no fluke. He offers several harsh and resonant montage sequences, some truly shocking visual sequences, and a wonderfully effective usage of sound effects. (Each moment of ‘addiction satisfaction’ is presented in a rapid-fire display of color, light and sound.) Especially memorable is the use of the infectious score by Clint Mansell, which gives the movie a dark, desperate heartbeat.
Ellen Burstyn is remarkable in this movie. While she hasn’t been seen in films too often lately, her performance simply should place her back in the public eye. As a woman who becomes increasingly more unable to deal with reality, she is heart-breakingly believable, and the result is one of the best acting performances of the year. Also quite surprising is the work of Jennifer Connelly, in a nearly impossible role. Her stunning beauty has somehow mislabeled her as a ‘pin-up’ actress, as she’s nearly always excellent, regardless of how small the role. She’ll get a lot of attention for her courageous performance. Jared Leto is serviceable as the anti-hero Harry. Although it’s easy to buy him as a junkie, he simply plays his role too ‘clean-cut’ most of the time. Leto is tough to buy him as a sleazy addict when he looks like the cover of a Teen magazine.
Much has currently been made of the MPAA’s decision to threaten this movie an NC-17 rating, thanks to a sequence near the end, which depicts some particularly unsavory acts. Apparently, The MPAA missed the point of this movie entirely. By deleting (or even editing) the scene in question would negate the entire point of the movie: That true addiction leads to true degradation. I proudly shook the director’s hand at a recent Q&A session, and it was because he didn’t compromise. I can’t promise that you’ll love this movie, but you’ll be able to see how censoring a movie can sometimes disembowel it.
Requiem for a Dream is a tough movie to watch, but the film offers a lot to enjoy. Darren Aronofsky deftly avoids many of the ‘drug-movie’ cliches so evident in other films of this style, and his film is a sobering and fascinating piece of work. While this movie is NOT for all tastes, I can recommend it as one of the best movies of the year. Requiem for a Dream is a film that will stay with you long after you leave the theater, and it’s a rare film that can do that.
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