art film at its finest

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2006)

Unfortunately the only thing I'd heard previously about this film was that Jared Leto's eyes are dreamy, so I put off renting it for a bit. I have no idea how it got to be the success that it is - it's basically an art-house film with cutting-edge interpretive camera work and grueling to watch besides. The only big problem I saw was, why on earth is Jared Leto's character addicted to heroin? His girlfriend Marion is a jaded, little-girl-whore type, his best friend has mother issues, and his own mother, Sara Goldfarb (played by Ellen Burstyn) has probably the most convincing and affecting drug addiction ever - a lonely, old widow who gets a phone call saying she'll be on TV and consequently becomes addicted to diet pills. The uppers make her irrationally happy, and she keeps going on nothing more than a dream of recapturing her old self, her family, and her happiness. Ellen Burstyn is amazing (you may remember her from The Exorcist) and I have that much more respect for her when I found out she was the co-president of The Actor's Studio after Lee Strasberg died - along with Harvey Keitel and...and...Al Pacino! Returning to the topic - the camera work is the main thing here. In some parts it gives the impression of being on tranquillizers, diet pills, crack, what have you - also despair - and in the last scene, with cuts in between extremely traumatic experiences for each of the main characters, it literally gives you a headache, but you still can't look away. In that way, and also in its extremely sympathetic approach to drug addiction, it's fearless in a way you don't see much anymore. I shall end with the conclusion that Jennifer Connely is an execrable actress, and that Requiem for a Dream is a must-see.