Left at a loss for words...

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2008)

The very best movies, in my opinion, are the ones that stir up so many different facets of your thoughts and emotions in such a way that your verbal abilities are left at a loss. That was exactly how I felt after watching this movie, and writing this review the following day, it is somewhat how I feel still. I suppose that in order to give a truly comprehensive review, one that dissects and analyzes all of the wonderful aspects of this movie in the way it deserves, I would need to watch it one or even two more times(which I will probably end up doing anyway). Nevertheless, I will do the best I can.
Requiem for a Dream starts, appropriately, at a point in time where all the main characters are pursuing, in one fashion or another, the dreams that they each have for their lives. We are introduced to Sara Goldfarb, a widowed woman who lives alone in Brooklyn, and her son Harry. The movie opens with Harry stealing his mother's television amidst a fight between the two of them. Harry and his mother have their differences, but they clearly love each other dearly. We understand without having to be told that Harry and his friend Tyrone are heavily involved with drugs (heroin in particular), and that Harry's girlfriend Marion is no stranger to them, either. All four of them have goals and aspirations. Sara simply wants to lose weight and look good for an upcoming TV appearance, and as she impatiently waits and obsesses over it, it becomes the central focus and seemingly all she thinks about in her lonely life.
Harry and Marion want to open a business someday, and with the money they make from selling heroin, it seems to the viewer that it is well within the realm of possibility. They too, love each other and are supportive of each other's goals.
What I realize now is that one reason the movie was so tragic is because each person's dreams are mostly realistic, and could have been realized. Yet as each one of them progressively spirals downward and becomes more and more entangled by the web of their addictions and the damage it causes them, it becomes clear that these fleeting dreams that each of them have will never come to fruition, and yet, through it all, we are still hoping that in some way they will.
As each character is slowly destroyed by the choices they have made, they are degraded lower and lower until they are mere faint outlines of what they had once been, not even recognizable to those who loved them, or to the audience. They never stop desiring their dreams, but as the lives they knew come to a catastrophic halt, their dreams become mere wishes.
I could say without hesitation that this is probably the best movie I've seen in close to two years, maybe more. It is a movie that shuts you up while you watch it, and it has that effect on you long after it is finished. The camera work, musical score, and acting are all outstanding, which definitely helps the movie to deliver its message.
Requiem for a Dream is a sad film, a thought-provoking film, but above all, it is one that deserves careful consideration. Because, it is not merely a film that stirs your emotions and makes you think; it is a film whose lessons can apply to all of us.