Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Premise: Four people have their lives shattered by
drug addictions that spiral out of control.
What Works: Requiem for a Dream splits the
narrative, working with different storylines of related characters. While this
multiple narrative technique is very much in vogue at the moment, this film does
it better than most because it limits the number of characters and the
connections between them are more interesting. The story has been smartly
constructed so that the narratives comment on one another, particularly in the
comparison between Sara (Ellen Burstyn), a lonely older woman who begins to
misuse diet pills, her son Harry (Jared Leto) who is hooked on heroin, and
Harry’s girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) who gradually begins
prostituting herself to get drugs. These
stories are really about a search for an ideal and the character’s use of
chemicals and self deception to try and fool themselves into thinking that they
are on their way to achieving that ideal. As a drug film, Requiem for a Dream also is better than most because it identifies that the drug abuse is not an end
in itself, but a symptom of greater psychological problems and dissatisfaction
with life. These kinds of films are often plagued with the question, “Why
don’t the characters just stop?” and many of these films end with characters
living happily every after by simply going clean. Requiem for a Dream refuses that easy solution by giving the characters permanent physical and
psychological damage and rooting their addiction in human frailty and their
dissatisfaction with life.
What Doesn’t: Requiem for a Dream uses
repetition as one of its key narrative devices. While this works through most of
the picture, at times it seems as though the patterns are overdone, particularly
in the climax. Requiem for a Dream is also one of the most brutal films
about drug abuse ever made, and the picture refuses to glamorize narcotics or to
give the audience the consolation (and cop out) of an ending like The
Basketball Diaries. While this is to the film’s credit, sensitive
viewers might find it very difficult to take.
DVD extras: R-rated and unrated editions of the
film are available. The Director’s Cut edition includes a making-of
documentary, commentary tracks, deleted scenes, interviews with cast members,
trailers, production notes, and The Anatomy of a Scene feature.
Bottom Line: Requiem for a Dream is one of
the great drug addition films. Some recent biopics have taken on the subject in
passing, namely Walk
the Line and Ray,
but where in those films drug addition is disconnected from the rest of the
character’s personality, Requiem for a Dream places the drug addiction
as a central component of the addicts character. The film is not Reefer
Madness, making the audience afraid of a boogyman, but instead focuses
on the reasons people turn to drugs and the personal cost of addiction on the
user.