A hard pill to swallow (No pun intended)

Rating: 9/10 (15 August 2001)

SPOILER WARNING
When I first saw Requiem for a Dream on the cinema, I gave it a 9 rating, having since bought it on DVD I am not sure weather I should change it to a 10. Everything about this film fits the tone of the material - yes the stylish ways in which the film is put together do distract at times, but I commend Aronofsky for putting the audience into the perspective of the characters. Darren Aronofsky first came to attention with the Sundance hit Pi (1998), but with Requiem for a Dream he pulls out all the stops. Every film technique is used in order to make you feel every high and every low that these characters go through, Hip-Hop montage, digital shots, crash cuts, triple exposures... All of them help create one of the most dizzying a distorted views of life ever put on screen.
I don't want to say too much about the plot, because I think there has already been so much written about it, I would like to say that I admired the use of each season the film used represented the feelings of the characters e.g. Summer  Warm optimism, Fall  The beginning of the fall of the characters, and Winter  Cold and detached. Another reason I haven't mentioned the plot is because too many people are hailing this picture as a "drug film". Yes drugs play a part but I would say it's more about the "dream", as demonstrated in my favourite scene in the film when Harry (Jared Leto) goes to visit his Mother Sara (the underrated Ellen Burstyn). Everything Sara says towards the end of the conversation is what Requiem for a Dream is all about. Being thought of as someone, having a reason to make the beds, wash the dishes, to have a reason to get up in the morning... All of this, this wanting of something more is what this film is about.
But this film is not for everyone, there are moments in it when it felt like I was being suffocated, the images add up to a barrage, making the viewer as disoriented as the characters. There are also some truly disgusting moments, at times you think that Aronofsky has gone to far (Shooting up into the infected arm and the sex orgy were pretty brutal), but it all makes sense, Aronofsky knows that by the end of the film we care about the characters, and this is really needed if we are to "get" the ultimate message of the film. Way too many people dismiss Requiem for a Dream as depressing or disgusting (Hey life is not pleasant people), and those who call Aronofsky a glorified MTV director basically are to shallow to take the time that is needed to fully take in the impact of this remarkable film.
9/10 maybe 10/10