REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Original review from 2001
One of the Top Ten Films of 2000 decade
Set in Coney Island, New York, the opening scene already establishes disorder and chaos, and fragments it visually. Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) is stealing his mother's television, which she has chained to the radiator with a lock. Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is shocked by her son's urges but can do nothing about it. Harry sells the TV to a pawn shop, and Sara buys it right back from the owner. It is a common reality. Harry loves heroin, and needs money to buy it. So does his partner in crime, Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans). They both fantasize a lot. Harry has a moment where he fantasizes stealing a cop's gun and playing it around like some toy. He also has dreams of his girlfriend, Marion (Jennifer Connelly), standing by a pier. She keeps vanishing in the dream. Still, what else can Harry dream about? He fools around with his girlfriend at tenements setting off fire alarms, throws paper airplanes, and gets deep inside the business of selling heroin. His dream is to sell enough to lay low and have a nest egg between himself, Marion and Tyrone. Marion has dreams of becoming a fashion designer, and makes several designs in her spare time when she isn't using heroin. Tyrone dreams of more innocent times with his mother, and hopes to make a killing with this drug business by partnering with some dangerous drug dealers. They all have dreams but they remain almost distant.
Sara has a lonely life. She lives alone in her apartment and has few friends. One day, she gets a call from a television station that claims she will be a guest on some television guru's program. Sara is excited by the prospect, and begins taking diet pills to lose weight so she can look fabulous on TV. Problems occur when she becomes addicted to the pills, and begins having nightmarish visions of her refrigerator and of the television guru (the guru is named Tappy Tibbons, played with great energy by Christopher MacDonald, who you might recall played a similar personality in "Quiz Show").
Once these characters are established, they slowly descend and descend into the cruel abyss of life where there is no end and no hope (of course, this is out of the characters's own volition). I have said that very few films in this day and age of irony ever plunge deep enough into a character's private hell where there is no escape. This is what made film noir such a wonderful genre - there were no limits to showing human desperation. Well, the final half-hour of "Requiem for a Dream" is so dark and frightening that it will leave nothing more than an audience member extremely exhausted, not to mention a sense of relief once it is over. Director Darren Aronofsky makes no compromises nor does he sugarcoat anything - we see the world through these four characters and we suffer along with them. It is so unflinching and so powerful that I am less likely to see anything closer to the heart of darkness than what Aronofsky shows us.
Again I ask though, what is the point? Is there a purpose behind showing such extreme forms of behavior leading to such relentlessly tough denouements? Yes, there is but it is easy to miss the purpose the first time out. Though Aronofsky and Selby have not written characters of real depth, they have created intense personalities that are hard to forget. There is a mixture of innocence and stupidity in Harry - a wild-eyed innocent who only lives for the moment. Marion will do anything for Harry, including getting money from stag parties to feed his addiction and hers. Tyrone seems to function as Harry's yes-man, but does not see that things are spiraling out of control. Sara has hopes of being on television, and is hopelessly addicted to her TV and diet pills which make her hyper. She just wants to belong to something, and is gradually accepted by her neighboring friends who sit outside the apartment. Only Tyrone is capable of controlling his urges, but since he follows Harry around like a puppy dog, he will end up in that cruel abyss of life as well.
Of all the scenes in the film, the most impressive and by far the most emotional is Sara's confession of her loneliness and isolation ever since her husband died. She talks of belonging to something, of being accepted - these are her needs. All the characters have needs, most of all Sarah who confuses drugs with fulfilling her needs. It is a gut-wrenching scene that is sure to elicit a tear or two from the most jaded viewer. Ellen Burstyn's performance is on par with her great work in "The Exorcist" and "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," and justifiably garnered her an Oscar nomination.
Based on the Hubert Selby, Jr. novel, "Requiem for a Dream" does indeed have a purpose - to show that addiction to a drug, any drug, can result in chaos and suffering. This is nothing new but it is how it is conveyed that makes it strong and so unflinching (the split-screen effect and time-lapse motion effects certainly contribute to the overall film's power). There is no moralizing or preaching - the film makes no judgment of any of these characters. Do not expect a modern-day "Reefer Madness" where we are told that drugs are evil and immoral. Instead, Aronofsky wants to address the situation subjectively. We recognize that Sara, Harry, Marion and Tyrone do have dreams but they are short-shrifted in favor of uncontrollable addictions. It has been said that every high school should show this film as proof that intense drug addiction leads nowhere except to madness. I am not sure I totally agree with that assessment but "Requiem for a Dream" certainly makes a case for it.
