Remember when you were younger (preferably in the 80’s), and Reagan was all hot under the collar about drugs? Remember the commercials we would see on TV: The infamous frying egg metaphor? Remember the D.A.R.E. program? Police officers coming to your school and telling you how drugs are bad and how to “Just say no”. It never seemed effective to me. To this day I really can’t remember anything they taught me. However, I know I will remember Requiem for a Dream, and once you see it neither will you. I’m seriously thinking of campaigning to get this movie to be used as a deterrent to drugs instead of D.A.R.E. (Of course the NC-17 rating may be a bit of a hurdle). My friends and I left this movie feeling like we had just been put through the ringer, and technically we were.
Darren Aronofsky’s harrowing visuals are able to pull you into the world of the two main characters, Harry and Sara Goldfarb of Coney Island. A mother and a son who, although different in ages, put themselves through the ringer for different goals but using the same vices: drugs.
Perchance to Dream
Harry (Jared Leto), is a heroin addict who constantly hawks his mother’s TV to support his and his friend, Tyrone’s (Marlon Wayans showing surprising range!) habit. But Harry and Tyrone aren’t content with just scrounging around for money to buy smack, they want to score a pound of smack of their own sell it off and make big money. Ah, to dream.
With them on this journey is Harry’s girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly). A beautiful girl who has the talent to become a designer, but loses her ambition in a haze of drugs. Harry and Marion are deeply in love but they bicker with each other everytime they run out of drugs. For a short while Marion, Harry and Tyrone are able to score a small bag of pure to sell on the street and make some serious money off of. At one point they have a shoebox stacked to the top with twenty-dollar bills. With this money Harry and Marion are able to buy a commercial space where Marion can feature her designs. For a short while things are good. The future looks green with possibilities.
Eventually though the shoebox full of twenties is almost dried out. Now Tyrone and Harry have to get serious about scoring that pound of pure. They could score from this one guy, but he only deals in sex, so he’s out of the question. Another choice is a dealer who comes up from Florida once a year and sells out of an orange truck behind a grocery store. Bingo! But things go wrong when some junkie pulls out a gun and sends the dealer hightailing it back to Florida. Now Marion, Tyrone and Harry are up sh*t creek.
Marion tears into Harry blaming him for the screw-up at the grocery store. Of course her anger stems from the fact that she hasn’t had a hit in a few hours. Harry, angered by her accusations angrily gives her the number of the other dealer who only deals in tail. Big mistake.
Desperate to get their score Tyrone and Harry decide to go down to Florida and see the dealer themselves and get their score. This of course leaves Marion alone, strung-out and hurting for a fix. Since Harry and Tyrone are off in Florida, Marion is left alone in New York to fend for herself. In desperation and in strung out shape she visits the other dealer (Keith David) and degrades herself for a fix. The next day the dealer tells her about a “little party” he’s throwing on Sunday, and asks her if she’d like to take part. Of course just getting her fix she declines, but the dealer knows his junkies and he knows once she’s strung out again she’ll be attending his party.
In the meantime Harry and Tyrone take a break on their trip to shoot up and Tyrone notices what looks like a nasty infection on Harry’s arm. Eventually though Harry’s arm begins to hurt really bad and they have to go to a hospital where they get busted by the cops. In jail Harry calls up Marion to see how she is, but Marion is no better off. Alone and out of heroin she’s getting ready for the “party”. In a heartbreaking scene she asks him if he can come to her today, which really means “I need you now or not at all”. On the other line Harry cries into the phone while Marion sheds a lone tear and then heads off to sell herself off for some heroin that she knows she’ll get afterward.
Blue in the morning, Purple in the afternoon, Orange in the evening and Green before bed
Sara (played by a damn-fantastic Ellen Burstyn!) a widow who sits alone in her humble home and watches some weird TV show with a chanting audience and a host who could be taken from any infomercial you ever saw. She lives alone and has no one really in her life since her son spends most of his time with his friends shooting smack. Then one day the monotony of her life is interrupted by a phone-call telling her she has been selected to appear on a game show; to be on TV. Now suddenly Sara’s life has a purpose, she has a reason to get up and make the bed every morning, to wash the dishes and take out the trash. She has people interested in her, she has friends to dye her hair and sunbathe with.
Sara decides to wear the red dress she wore to her son’s graduation on TV,the one her now-dead husband looked admiringly at her in. Unfortunately it doesn’t fit her anymore. One of her friends suggests a diet, but it doesn’t satisfy her cravings or leave her full. Each night she looks longingly at her fridge thinking of all the tasty goodies she is being deprived of. She lies in bed at night and hallucinates cupcakes, doughnuts and other goodies. Finally she hooks herself up with a pill-distributing quack who gives her speed to keep her cravings down.
At first its funny watching her popping pills then eating a big sandwich and dancing in front of her refrigerator in dietary triumph. In one scene we see Sara’s day as she is hopped up on speed. Thanks to the use of Aronofsky’s visuals we are able to see the affect of the drug on her. But her victory is short lived as, like all drugs, Sara begins to build up a tolerance to her “medication”. In order to battle this she starts to take more pills in order to one-up her tolerance. Of course disastrous results take place. What Aronofsky does with Sara’s scenes is terrifying and amazing. His use of camera angles and techniques gives the audience and off-center and uncomfortable view into Sara’s drug-induced trip through insanity. This is definitely the most intense part of the film. With Burstyn all the uglies of her addiction are front and center. When she’s admitted into a hospital after making an unnerving visit to a TV production studio that's when the really hard stuff comes in. What happens to this woman afterwards is just... well its depressing.
In the end all the characters are shown at the bottom of their pit curled in a fetal position stuck in their self-created hells. Originally I had written a more detailed review of the ending but after a few complaints I removed it. I would not want to take away your experience from this movie because it hits hard and unapologetically. After watching it though you'll feel like you had to "come off of it", just like a harsh drug. I also have to say that the score by Clint Mansell fits effortlessly well in the movie and really does transmit such a sense of tragedy that you'll find yourself remembering it long after you've left the theatre. After this movie I have now permanently added Aronofsky to my list of Directors to Watch Out For. And rumor has it that the director has been tapped to direct the fifth sequel to the Batman franchise. With his talent and edge he may just be able to breathe fresh new life in a dying film. To Mr. Aronofsky, we salute you.
Now say it with me now, just like the police officers used to tell us in school: Drugs are baaaaaaaad.
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