excellent, if exaggerated, look at addiction

Rating: Null/10 (15 December 2000)

"Requiem for a Dream" is quite a powerful message film. It tells the story of four major characters all with some form of an addiction; whether it be to heroin, cocaine or diet pills. It builds up and glamorizes the stories of the characters, making you care for them, and then proceeds to flush their lives down the toilet. Arnofsky's sophomore effort is overstylized and snazzy, but it's good to see that he has talent in his style. The faults? The script is rather unsensational, the acting is good enough but never as good as it could have been. And the stories sometimes seem too exaggerated (Mrs. Goldfarb comes to mind) in order to make a point. Often attempts at subjectivity seem overblown. But other than that, the film is excellent and sometimes exceptional. I don't think that I've ever seen such a harrowing, disturbing film. Even when you think you can't stand to watch, you are always compelled to. Arnofsky's style is awesome: original and effective in creating the tone for the film. Another big plus--the score is fabulous and evocative, especially in the final montage of the characters' fates. I don't think that the film is deserving of the NC-17 rating (or the adults only policy being enforced) like some other films which deserve it, since a powerful lesson is to be learned from "Requiem". I don't see how anyone could want to use cocaine or heroin or anything like that after viewing this film. By the way, as powerful and excellent as "Requiem for a Dream" is, I have no plans to see it again; that would be somewhat masochistic. It's so depressing and disturbing, I could never subject myself to it again. Very very powerful, and incredibly worth seeing...once.
9/10