Requiem for a Dream

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Requiem for a Dream

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Requiem for a Dream

Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Jared Leto, Christopher McDonald

Sara Goldfarb is a lonely widow who is revitalized by the prospect of appearing on television as a game show contestant, while her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion, and his friend Tyrone have devised ...( read more  read more... )an illicit shortcut to wealth and ease. Lulled by early successes, Sara, Harry, Marion and Tyrone convince themselves that unforeseen setbacks are only temporary. They ignore their deteriorating circumstances and focus all their energies on realizing their beautiful visions of the future. Even as the promise of fulfillment disappears to nothingness, they cling to the delusions that are slowly destroying their lives, denying reality until at last they are eye to eye with their worst nightmares.

Id: 2721761

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Requiem for a Dream Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 4, 2009
    SirPant
    Capitalism has lead to consumerism and consumerism has lead to addiction. We are now all drug addicts and greed is the drug and we must have it at any cost. Hard hitting social commentary from Aronofsky who goes from strength to strength.
  • binky013
    August 10, 2009
    binky013
    If the stunning script -- particularly the clever dialog -- doesn't drive you up the wall, then the brilliantly coached dialect may step up and drive you to drink. A nightmare not to be endured.
  • ohagankieran
    June 15, 2009
    ohagankieran
    If Pi showed that Aronofsky was full of ideas, his follow-up showed we didn?t know the half of it, with the director?s toy-box of technical tricks providing the film?s big buzz amid a gripping pessimism.

    I was tempted to title my summary "Drugs are bad, mm'kay?" because this mov...( read more)ie was so sad I was desperate to inject a little humor. Man, what a sad, scary, excellent, grim, disturbing, well-made movie. The more I read about this movie and learned about it, the more fascinating it seemed. I also am one of those people who, when they hear a movie is extremely shocking and disturbing, get a burning urge to see it as fast as I can to see if it shocks me (especially if it's unrated or 18), since I am pretty jaded. So, I eagerly anticipated seeing it.

    Unfortunately I read SO many reviews and so much about the making of the movie, that I knew a little too much about the plot going in to see it, so there weren't too many surprises. It concerns four addicts. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly play a young loving couple, Harry and Marion, who dabble in heroin and plan to make a big sale along with their friend Tyrone (Shawn Wayans) so they can be set for life and Marion can open up her own (legal) business. Unfortunately, their recreational drug use turns into day-to-day addiction, and things start to get ugly. REAL ugly. (Watching someone shoot up directly into a gangrene-infected, pus-filled crater in his arm kind of gave me a whole new definition of the word ugly.) Ellen Burstyn plays Harry's mother Sarah, a lonely widow who wants to lose weight to fit into a red dress so she can appear on her favorite TV show. She starts out by being addicted to TV and candy, but has the bad luck to go to a doctor who-in what I thought was the only unrealistic part of the film- gives her an RX for 'diet pills', that turn out to actually be speed. I say unrealistic because, as anyone who has ever worked in the medical profession knows, very few doctors will NOT just write someone who goes to them for the first time to see them for weight loss a huge prescription for extremely powerful and addictive controlled substances without so much as an examination. In this day and age, if you went to 100 doctors and asked for Dexedrine or a similar narcotic diet pill, I doubt even one would prescribe it. If the movie took place any time before the early 80's, this would have been a little easier to swallow.

    Anyway, I found her story thread the most memorable and heartbreaking. Sarah takes pills and starts losing weight, as well as suddenly becoming very energetic and chatty. Like any addictive drug, her happy blue pills stop working after prolonged use so she ups her dose more...and more...and things slowly start getting very weird and scary. In one of the best scenes midway through the film (one of the few that had a tiny bit of comic relief) Harry visits her --the only visit he makes during the movie where he doesn't openly steal her TV to pawn for dope money. He is briefly riding high (in more ways than one) and tells her he bought her a big screen TV-he wanted to do something nice for her and figured out that "TV is her fix". He looks like he's getting a bad feeling when she's babbling happily about how she has a reason to get up in the morning, and then he hears her grinding her teeth, and figures it out. This is the first time in the movie you see real fear in his eyes. Sarah soon starts having very scary strung-out hallucinations-starting out with subtle things like time woozily slowing down and speeding back up, and when her refrigerator suddenly starts moving on its own, the real nightmare begins. An agressive fridge with a mind of its own sounds Monty Python-esque when you first hear about it, but trust me, you won't be laughing by the end of the movie.

    One review I read said that the movie not only pulls the rug out from under you, it drags you and the rug down a long flight of stairs into a very dark basement. Another reviewer compared the experience of watching the film to a drug, and that's not too far off the mark either. Whenever a character gets high, there's a slam-bang fast cut montage of the same images over and over; a sigh, a pupil dilating, cells changing color. The scenes where Sarah hallucinates are pretty close to the real thing. The description I probably agree with most came from Darren Aronofsky himself-he compared the film to a jump from a plane without a parachute, and the movie ends three minutes after you hit the ground. The last few minutes that show the gruesome, depressing, worst-case-scenario fates of all 4 characters are just as intense, hard to watch, and nightmarish as I heard they were. I don't think I will ever forget Harry's mother's transformation from a harmless, plump, friendly older woman to someone so frightening looking that people cringe away in fear and revulsion at the sight of her.

    My only complaints would be that I wish it were longer, with more time for character development. The film is divided up into 3 segments, Summer (things going fine, having fun getting high) Fall (the beginning of the downhill slide)and Winter (end of the line). I would have liked more scenes of what these people and their lives were like before they were addicts, as well as their relationships with each other. The cast is great- Wayans shows that he has the most range and talent of the Wayans bros- I laughed so hard at him in Don't Be A Menace that I ended up buying it, but here...wow. I would have liked to see more of his character. I never liked Leto much before, but he is excellent and also almost unrecognizable (he said he dropped 1/5 of his weight for the role and boy does it show). Connelly I disliked so much before that I would actively avoid seeing movies she was in, but I was very impressed and convinced that she can act. Burstyn gives the performance of a lifetime- not only convincing, but she was dedicated enough to let the filmmakers make her look like absolute and total hell, which many actresses over 50 would probably not be brave enough to do.

    I still am amazed that "Scary Movie" got away with an 18 (WAY more graphic sex than this film-I had to pick my jaw up off the floor at what got by the censors in that one) yet this movie went unrated, reportedly for the flashes of the sex act at the end that, while nasty, was not shown in detail. Well, this wasn't a big budget studio film, so maybe I'm not that amazed, but it bugs me.

    Not recommended if you're easily shocked, squeamish, or upset. If you only like movies that take you to a happy place, stay away. Everyone who left the movie theater looked like they had just been hit over the head with a very large board. And we were all people who knew what we were getting into. Recommended for those who want to see a movie that will completely overtake you and involve you emotionally. In addition, this film should be required viewing for everyone in the fashion industry that supported and glorified that whole 'heroin chic' crap. Also a good movie if you are having some problems in your life and want to put them in perspective VERY fast. I give it 9 out of 10 stars. And even though I keep my weight down the old-fashioned way, I'll probably never look at my fridge quite the same way again...
  • mrpopcorn
    April 29, 2009
    mrpopcorn
    "You are beautiful. You're the most beautiful girl in the world. You are my dream."

    The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control.

    REVIEW
    ...( read more)>
    This movie is about self-delusion, as seen in the context of drug abuse. We track the experiences of four people who all have problems at the start of the film. Sara Goldfarb, portrayed in a startling performance by Ellen Burstyn, is still getting over her husband's death and longs for some meaning in her life - "something that's worth waking up in the morning for" and finds it in the news that she is to appear on television, something she is almost as addicted to as sugar. Her son Harry, played convincingly by Jared Leto, longs constantly for a new, better fix and not surprisingly, finds it in drugs.

    His girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly), tries to escape from the control of her parents, who give her enough money, which for her, is not enough and so she also gets involved with the drug scene, descending to lower levels each time. Marlon Wayans plays the role of their friend, Tyrone, for whom all that seems to matter is doing something with his life that will please his mother. The fickle world of drug pushers promises wealth and status and soon starts involving him and his two friends.

    The film moves through three seasons. Summer sees everyone living the good life, but in the Fall, things get out of control. In Winter, everything collapses and each character has to accept the consequences of their earlier actions. The direction of Darren Aronofsky and cinematography of Matthew Libatique brings Hubert Selby Jr.'s bleak world to life. Close-up shots of the drug taking experience add to the extreme graphic nature of the film and the Fall includes some of the most amazing direction, editing and cinematograpy you will ever see.

    It is impossible to watch this movie and not be affected by it. A powerful, horrifying look at the downside of drug abuse.
  • MovieGeek13
    March 19, 2009
    MovieGeek13
    One of the toughest films I've had to sit through, but Darren y's Aronofsky's gradual destruction of hope must be experienced.
  • pulpspy
    December 7, 2009
    pulpspy
    Beautifully devastating. Every shot is perfectly framed. The textbook for modern cinematography.
  • imagination22
    December 3, 2009
    imagination22
    Incredibly depressing but it fulfills its purpose brilliantly. Stunning soundtrack.
  • ghostgirl969
    December 2, 2009
    ghostgirl969
    Most epic soundtrack ever.
    Was good, very good but not great. Not to my tastes. Prefered Trainspotting to it.
  • markoseppanen
    November 29, 2009
    markoseppanen
    Well... gripping, visually good and tragic story but... the movie felt too jumpy between the scenes and wrong in some important aspects, at least for me. Almost like if someone is telling you a story but you notice that his body language is sometimes telling you a completely diff...( read more)erent story, not the same as the oral story. The oral and the body language doesn't tell the same story, they don't match and something feels strange and wrong. This movie felt exactly like that for me. The abuse scenes was thrilling and emotional and so on... But most parts of it wasn't quite right, hence too hyped (they looked cool though) and not completely realistic with all the subtle things right.
    So, my personal feeling about this movie is that the director and/or most of the actors doesn't really have enough real life experience (I could be totally wrong but that doesn't really matter and I don't care either) of these drugs, or they couldn't express it well enough with all subtle signs right (everyone did very good expressing themselves indeed but not realistically enough). And if it only looks good and dramatic on film but isn't quite right, subtitle signs missing and so on, then the whole thing feels just wrong, silly and amateurish (from the abuse point of view), IMHO. I've seen other movies that captures this brilliantly but not this movie.
    But if you take the movie as a love/drug/dreams/etc movie that tries to tell you about dreams, that drugs aren't really good, and anyone can fall into it with a tragic outcome, etc. Then I guess the movie works and can be great, but this didn't work for me at all, sorry.
  • algerface
    November 27, 2009
    algerface
    also maybe, maybe not
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