More and more these days, nurses, teachers and politicians with no 'real' experience are using ridiculous scare tactics to keep kids off drugs. Although graphic and disturbing, Requiem For A Dream does more than scare, it chills you to the very core. If there was ever a good case against hard drug use, this is it. And not because of threats of vomit-covered death...Aronofsky shows there are much worse things. And that they are very real.
The plot revolves around four New Yorkers- elderly widow Sara, her heroin-addict son Harry, his heroin-addict girlfriend Marion, and their heroin-addict friend Tyrone. In summer, Sara is excited to slim down into her favourite red dress for a supposed upcoming television appearance, and gets amphetamines from a dodgy doctor. Harry and Marion are excited to make their fortune dealing heroin and open a clothing store. By winter, their dreams have crumbled as a result of drug abuse, and this masterpiece of cinema is an account into the very real, painfully slow deterioration of addicts.
It is hard to focus on certain features as it's so masterfully created, but Aronofsky's trademark psychotic cinematography is used to frightening effect, from an uneasily close perspective. This film is also perfectly cast, with Ellen Burstyn giving a heart-breaking performance as a desperately lonely woman, and Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans boldly filling edgy roles with enormous authenticity.
Those nurses, teachers and politicians tell kids that drugs are addictive, and you crave them, and they make you see things. That ain't the half of it. Aronofsky thrusts us right next to Marion as she sweats and screams, and drinks from various bottles in the medicine cabinet. We sit on Sara's shoulder as she sobs, ashamed, while hallucinated people mock her. We are forced to be part of everything, so uncomfortably close to these terrifying realities, and we can't help but get pulled into the characters' quicksand of despair and terror. This is the reality of hard drug abuse. It is all too easy to lose control of, and its concequences are all too real.
Approach this film with caution- it is chilling, depressing and graphic, and for this reason, Aronofsky has succeeded in making a truly meaningful film.
No comments:
Post a Comment