Dream Turns To Nightmare!

Rating: 4/10 (27 May 2007)

Requiem for a Dream marks my first Darren Aronofsky film to date. In short, I am disappointed and has given me a bad first impression of the director. This overwrought public service announcement follows the lives of four people suffering the consequences of drug addiction. An interesting subject treated with the utmost superficiality. My major issue is with the script. It doesn't seem to be doing much except saying "look how bad drugs are". There's no deep or profound meaning on the subject matter and doesn't leave much for interpretation. Furthermore, I could not manage to muster an ounce of sympathy for any of the characters. The script simply lacked any real depth to make them remotely interesting or relatable. We basically just watch all of them crash and burn. It might be visually interesting but we never get to emotionally connect with any character. There's also Aronofsky's visual techniques which are quite striking at first, but after a while they get tiresome. The four principal actors do well enough given what they have to work with. Ellen Burstyn is most notable for her Oscar-nominated performance. But not even a good performance can redeem this relentlessly pretentious film. A Let Down!