Tries too hard.

Rating: 3/10 (26 October 2001)

Slow motion, fast motion, slow motion with fast motion, spins, split screens. How many trick camera shots can a director fit into a feature film? If your Darren Aronofsky, you can fit in about 17 million. At least that is how many I thought I saw in Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream.
I was excited to see Requiem for a Dream. I somewhat enjoyed Aronofsky's previous film Pi. I thought that if the guy that made Pi had more money he might really be able to do something. Requiem is something all right.
Requiem for a Dream has two main story lines. One follows Sara (Ellen Burstyn), a loving mother of a bum son, through her quest to loose weight so she can fit into a special red dress to live out her dream to be on television. The other follows her son Harry (Jared Leto), his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly), and his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) on their quest to live out their dream of making a really big drug score.
Both stories are dark. All of the characters, including the Sara, the loving mother, take the pathetic, downward spiraling road of drug addiction. The film follows their stories to the absolute bottom, and then leaves it there. There is no redemption. There is no hope.
Requiem tries too hard. It wears "artsy-fartsy" as a badge. Just because a movie is really dark, doesn't mean it is relevant. Just because something has a very distinctive style, doesn't mean it is a good style. I didn't hate Requiem. Burstyn's performance was amazing. Leto wasn't bad either. I wanted to like it. I wanted to be in the group of people that "get" this sort of film. I don't want to be some bumpkin. I don't want it to be over my head.
I didn't like it though, and I don't think that I'm being a bumpkin. I "got" this movie, more like a disease than an understanding. I don't think that it was over my head, more like it bashed me over the head.
I give Requiem for a Dream 3 out of 10 stars.