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 REQUIEM
FOR A DREAM- 2000. Drama. Approx 95 minutes. NR, nudity, sex, major
drug usage. Welcome to the wonderful world of addiction. After learning
that she may be appearing on tv, 50 something year old Sara Goldfarb
(Ellen Burstyn) goes on a diet so she can fit into her favorite red dress
that she hasn’t worn in years. Having major problems with the diet, Sara
starts taking prescription diet pills to help her shed some pounds. At the
same time, Harry (Jared Leto), Sara’s young 20’s son, is trying to
save money so he and his chickie Marion (Jennifer Connelly) can open up a
clothing/fashion store. To accomplish this dream, Harry and his buddy
Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) sell drugs on the streets on New York City. Of
course, this drug selling idea is not such a good thing because Harry,
Tyron, and Marion are all drug addicts. Just as the trio start booting
there own inventory, Sara becomes flat out addicted to the diet pills to
the point of experiencing severe hallucinations. Back to the druggie trio;
the clan has injected their entire heroin stash and has exhausted their
money, so to get more drugs, Marion starts to have sex with men to satisfy
their drug addiction. It’s about at this time that the lives of these
four people really starts to get ugly…..
This
movie troubled me. If you have never seen addiction and what it can do to
a life, namely ruin it, watch this flic and you won’t believe your eyes.
Seeing the addicted trio screw themselves over drugs was neither a
surprise nor shocking because we have all seen movies dealing with this
subject before. Some of us may even now a few true-life stories concerning
family or friends losing a battle with drugs. Once people start using and
selling heroin, things tend to go downhill from there. However, the
storyline of Sara becoming addicted to diet pills really bothered me. She
starts out as a “normal” Mom, but has her addiction fueled by the
dream of being on tv and becoming the popular one with the apartment
yentas. Watching this poor
woman self-destruct, and be ignored by her “doctor,” is truly
disturbing. Ellen Burstyn has been nominated for an Oscar for her role as
Sara, and deservingly so. Watching her wither away into self-destruction
is heart wrenching. Along with being impressed with Ellen Burstyn, I was
equally impressed with the rest of the main cast, notably Jennifer
Connelly. In past roles, Connelly basically skated by on her great looks
rather than her talent, but not here. She is simply remarkable and
deserves attention for this role. Besides, I have loved her for a long ass
time. On a less serious note, there is a scene where she is looking into a
mirror bottomless, but wearing a bra. God that’s hot! I love seeing
women, especially ones I find most attractive, like that! Ok, back to
business; Marlon Wayans does a good job with this dramatic role and Jared
Leto amazingly pulls off this great junkie character. Director Darren
Aronofsky (Pi) uses his trademark “camera in the face” shooting to
beautifully depict each character’s descent into self-destruction. Along
with the direction, the musical score also drives this film home. Requiem
for a Dream is adapted from Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel of the same name.
Troubling, hard hitting, and scary are just a few ways to describe this
movie. – Denis Sheehan
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