Heroin and prescription weight-loss drugs (well, amphetamines) wreak havoc on mother Ellen Burstyn, son Jared Leto, and pretty much every other major character in Darren Aronofsky's critically lauded follow-up to Pi.
Requiem for a Dream still dazzles with its rapid-fire editing, crisp cinematography, and unrelentingly bleak universe. Set some time during the 1970's as heroin became one of America's drugs of choice, it follows Leto and Burstyn through three seasons of increasingly disaster. There is no Spring.
Of course, as many have noted on the Internet, one of the iconic recurring shots (a pupil dilating) represents the exact opposite effect that heroin has on the human eyeball (the pupil should expand). Maybe time is running backwards? It's certainly possible that's what Aronofsky means to imply -- because the forward motion of time brings only horror, decay, and madness.
The scenes that involve an infomercial watched obsessively by Burstyn's despairing widow are some of the few funny things in Aronofsky's generally humourless oeuvre, and feature a dynamite, partially improvised performance by Christopher McDonald that almost seems like something from another movie adapted from a story by Philip K. Dick. No wonder Burstyn's character wants to go into that ad!
So the short version of the message of the movie is Kids, don't do drugs. Adults too! Jennifer Connelly shines as Leto's girlfriend, as does Marlon Wayans as his best friend. And the terrific score, in part by Kronos Quartet, helps.
As in pretty much all of his films, Aronofsky works with dazzlingly unsympathetic characters here -- pitiful, yes, but also dull and stripped of the occasional flashy glamour invested in drug users in movies. No wonder they need to lose themselves inside the warmth of heroin or the glow of amphetamines -- there's no 'there' there in their personalities. Highly recommended.
