the movie for a lifetime

Rating: Null/10 (20 March 2010)

Perhaps the hardest thing to portray beautifully in a movie is to show the vulnerabilities of human beings without losing the plot. Kudos to Darren Aronofsky for his mind-blowing direction.A great work with the camera with superb innovations like split screen techniques.The film starts with a light note surrounding the 4 central characters and then with time delves deep into the murky & horrific world of drugs.Everything starting from the direction to acting is so terse and pin-pointed. This is a film that is so distressing and depressing and yet a food for the soul.The true consequences of drug abuse is shown in a brutally genuine way. Jared Lato and Jeniffer Connelly deliver their best performance as vulnerable youths whose lives are shattered due to a vicious nexus of drug abuse.Even Marlon Wayans delivers a nice performance.The horrific turn their life takes will simply numb you. But the show-stealing performance comes from Ellen Burstyn who breaks every ground of acting while portraying the character of Jared Lato's mother, a loner who wants to get back to her olden days & in the way falls prey to drug abuse in the form of diet pills.The horror in her eyes that grows day by day as the movie advances will cause a lump in your throat. And in the end of the movie the director justifies why the movie is titled so.While Ellen Burstyn has to be admitted to a hospital for electroshock therapy where she remains only a shadow of her old self, Jared Lato also ends up mutilating his hand due to rotting of it by drug injection.Jeniffer Connelly is forced to prostitution to satiate her needs for drug and Marlon Wayans lands up in jail and is shown to dream of days when he was young and used to sleep like an innocent boy with his mom. The metamorphosis of the characters from simple people into shattered selves is simply heart touching. This was a movie which unjustly missed on Oscars. At least Ellen Burstyn should have been awarded for her role.The depiction of a lonely lady, the longing to eat, the horrific hallucinations and at last a finished character was played superbly by her that is unparalleled. Its heartening that the movie is at 60th on IMDb's list of best movies but i would have liked it to be within best 30. This is a movie which will numb your senses at least for sometime after you watch it. Its not a tear jerker and neither a documentary but the portrayal is tremendously disturbing and dangerously true. I recommend everyone to watch it and get a true angle to drug abuse. Its a cinematic beauty as well as educational. Please watch it. A complete 10 on 10. Nothing can get better than this.