You've Probably Seen It Already

Rating: 6/10 (17 January 2003)

Score: 6/10 Pros: Extremely well-made, good mood devices Cons: Dull, Predictable Story
You know a film is in trouble when some fancy camera-tricks, an impeccably fantastic performance by Jennifer Connelly (among others), and a carnivorous refrigerator are the only things saving it from being dismissed as complete mediocrity. Aronofsky is a wonderful director and his talents really show in the film. The problem is that he chose a rather formulaic and lackluster story. If one were to ask, "what kind of movie is it?" or "what's it about?" one would receive this painfully short response: "It's a drug movie." If you have seen Train Spotting, Naked Lunch, Pierrot le Fou, and/or Pulp Fiction, you have seen this movie; they all have identical set-ups (except maybe for Pulp Fiction):
1) We are presented with characters with seemingly promising futures and the hopes and dreams to live them out accordingly.
2) They have it in their minds that the only way to achieve these hopes and dreams is by getting themselves a piece of the narcotics-peddling pie, which they do.
3) Everything seems to go accordingly until the characters' 'professional' lives interfere with their personal lives.
4) There is a subsequently fateful downfall of the characters in which, if they do not end up back where they started, they end up a few steps back (if not leaps and bounds).
The distinctions among all of these films is found within the manner and style in which step 4 is carried out. Granted, this film carries out step 4 very well, but time-lapse photography, staccato editing, and MTV's Fear-style POVs can only entertain for so long before even they become tiresome.
Sum Up: Great acting, great direction, great editing, great cinematography, formulaic and predictable story. Fun to watch, but leaves you with little to take with you when the credits roll.
My Advice: Stick to Pi.
Also: In addition to a performance by Ms. Connelly, we are also treated to a somewhat disturbing performance by Keith David, playing the character of Big Tim, a swinger/pervert of the highest caliber. It is a true testament to his flexibility as an actor when one considers that, a few years earlier, he had played a muslim holy man in Pitch Black!