disillusioned yet spellbound

Rating: 10/10 (28 September 2005)

Requiem for a dream is one of the few movies that can get below the skin and leave them with more than just a parting thought. Afonofsky builds the lives of 4 lots souls all building their hopes up on empty dreams and watching them all slowly suffer into what is essentially a living hell. Sara, the mother played by Ellen Burnstyn thinks she is going to be on a game show geared toward self improvement. She gets overly excited and starts to take pills to lose a few pounds for when she goes on TV. Her son Harry and his best friend Tyrome on the other hand keeps his hope set on drug money and the life he'll someday get to live so he can support his girlfriend Marion and she can finally open up a boutique like shes always wanted to do. Their dreams soon fail when sara becomes addicted to weight loss pills and Harry and Tyrome soon become addicted to the very drug they were going to get rich off of. The suffering is so believable and gradual so its like taking a walk to the park in the middle of the day. In the end all one can wish for the characters is death but even that seems hopeless. The closer and closer the movie gets to the end the anxiety just keeps growing and the viewer is left spellbound in front of the screen wishing they could just turn their head or shut off the TV. This movie is definitely criteria for required watching for the human race, but once and only once unless your looking for something to slit your wrists to.