The triumph of form over substance ranks as audience abuse

Rating: 1/10 (15 June 2001)

This movie struck me as utterly phony, which was surprising as Aronfsky's prior film, "Pi," was amazing. Never once, from the very beginning, did I believe I was watching anything but specific actors play-acting. Ellen Burtsyn's thick slice of ham cut close to the bone was embarrassing, and her New York "Jewish" accent coming in a film released in the year 2000 struck me as outrageous! I mean, are we going back to "The Goldbergs" and 1950?

The whole film struck me as ersatz, artificial -- it had this 1950 junkie sensibility of Selby grafted onto this "hip hop" style that was simply jarring. The screenplay, which was co-written with Selby, was so predictable I began amusing the woman I was watching the film with by actually giving her the next line. I was right too often for comfort. The massacre during the dope dealing sequence in the back of the supermarket not only was telegraphed far ahead, but was incredibly STUPID. I did not believe the scene for a minute. Is it supposed to be a dream? I ask that as it has NO LOGIC.
Perhaps the biggest problem were the two leads -- Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly. While their acting was quite good, they looked like they had deplaned at JFK from Beverly Hills that very morning. Connelly is too good looking for the role (she does not look the part of a junkie; in contrast, Samantha Morton, who granted is a better actress, looks the part of a junkie in "Jesus's Son"); a woman that looks like Connelly could be a call girl making many thousands of dollars a night, which made her "descent" into hell ridiculous. What is the problem with her character: she's just plain stupid?

Leto looks like a male model. (There used to be an old joke when I was a kid: Funny, it don't look Jewish. Leto, whose character I assume is at least half Jewish, looks as pure Irish as Connelly; in fact, they look enough alike to be brother and sister, which I'm sure was intentional but which was downright weird.)
The ending, the denouement of the three main characters' stories, was so over-the-top that my friend and I began laughing out loud. (I will say, Burstyn was excellent during the harrowing scene of the force feeding. The look on her face of pain, humiliation and resignation was haunting -- a great moment in screen acting.) Just intercutting two of the stories, son and mother, would have been enough, but the sexual imagery and situation of Connelly's character was so evocative of a throwing everything in but the kitchen sink mentality, we just couldn't stop howling. I mean -- COME ON! I'm chuckling right now thinking of the scene. It certainly dissipated the power of the son's horror (though not that of Burstyn, due to the great control she displayed in her acting; perhaps Aronfsky should learn the value of SUBTLTY from that part of her performance).
I think people were wowed by the directoral pyrotechnics, but frankly, this film's triumph of form over substance ranks as audience abuse!