Directed by:
Darren AronofskyCinematography:
Matthew LibatiqueComposer:
Clint MansellCast:
Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Suzanne Shepherd, Mark Margolis (more)Plots(1)
Twin stories about different kinds of addiction: A young man (Jared Leto) who along with his best friend (Marlon Wayans) and girlfriend is addicted to heroin, dreams of transcending his life of hustling and owning a store in New York City, while his mother (Ellen Burstyn), depressed and obsessed by television and diet pills envisions her chance to shine again on a game show. (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (13)
Aronofsky’s audio-visual approach makes use of absolutely all of his medium’s means of expression in order to totally and mercilessly overwhelm the audience. One of the many fitting aspects of this film consists in how long everything is seemingly fine in the lives of the characters and then the sudden realisation that they’ve been treading water in an ocean of hopelessness. We are all dependent on something and we create delusions to justify and even feed our dependencies without having to see the reality around us. It’s easy to find everyone or at least a reflection of someone close to you in the four lives depicted in Requiem for a Dream. During the closing credits, there is nothing left to do but curl up in a ball and keep dreaming your dream. Though first contact with this film is unrivalled in terms of the intensity of its impact, seeing it again after roughly two decades is no easier or more merciful, because then you know what awaits the characters.
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It's brilliant filmmaking, but its excessive darkness is its biggest weakness. Aronofsky, as co-writer of the screenplay, in an attempt to play on the darkest possible string, committed several screenwriting blunders, and very big ones at that. However, if I had to pick one drug-themed movie out of all the ones I wanted to use to discourage my potential offspring from using drugs, it would pick this one. It's not nearly as sophisticated and complex as, say, Traffic, and it's leaky script-wise, but it's so disgusting in its depiction of the consequences of drug use that it would have served its purpose perfectly.
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Straightforward - transparent - destructive. Although one swears that Aronofsky is working with his triad of destinies so ostentatiously that the viewer cannot be caught with his pants down, it happens nonetheless. Thanks to famous editing, fantastic music and a gourmet tempo, and the atmosphere of the shots, Requiem for a Dream escalates into unbearably creaking tones of frustration and humiliation. Mansell's central melody makes one feel cold, but the visual poem Darren composed for it tears the skin. Although the film typically does not have a particularly deep interior, its surface is so perfect and so well targeted that it cannot be resisted.
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Requiem for a Dream confirmed that I really don't like movies about drug addicts. If it weren't for the story of Harry's mother, I'd probably give it a single star for the direction and the music and that would be it. My problem is that I wanted the worst possible ending for virtually all the characters (except for the aforementioned Sara Goldfarb) from the very beginning. And that is why the ending, praised by many, full of emotions and evoking depression, didn't touch me particularly. All in all, I think the only thing that really impressed me was the (brief, because I always closed my eyes) sight of that inflamed hand. Two and a half stars.
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Requiem for a Dream is a breathtaking journey into the human mind, which hides countless horrors and phobias in its recesses and is a virtually inexhaustible commodity as a film subject. Who really knows what goes on inside the heads of people who are addicted to any kind of drug? And it is Darren Aronofsky who manages to outline one variant in this powerfully emotional film in a rather convincing and frighteningly realistic way. Ellen Burstyn was incredibly real and embraced her role to the fullest, while being complemented brilliantly by the performances of Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly. All of the pillars (direction, actors, cinematography, editing, sound... and especially the music) that make up a solid film were firmly planted in the ground, and I just enjoyed the stirring spectacle that raced inexorably towards one of the most impressive conclusions in cinema. In short, the perfect prototype for a psychological drama with a nod to thriller, with which Aronofsky rose strongly in my estimation.
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