Gut Wrenching

Rating: 10/10 (4 September 2002)

If you want to see a happy vision of heroine addiction watch something else, hell even the glum trainspotting pails in comparison to this movie. Requiem for a Dream is about hope going away for four people due to drug addiction. The amazing thing about this film is that it shows the charecters highs as well as their lows. You see the Euphoria and then you see the horror. The performances are top rate especially Ellen Burstyn as the doomed Sarah GoldFarve. Burstyn is fantastic and should have won the Oscar. I have not seen a more sad or haunting performance in years. Jared Leto is terrific as Burstyn's never do well Heroine addict son Harry. He gives the charecter a nuisance and a guiniune desire to do good though his life has gone bad. Marlon Wayans is shockingly good as Tai, he shocks us with the depth of what is an unheralded and overlooked performance. Jennifer Connolly is great too, she is the one that is placed in the most degrading and embarrassing situations of the four junkies and her performance is a revelation. Requiem for a Dream is a spectacular nightmare of addiction, it is a horror show and it is a great one. This is the best movie I have seen in the last 5 years, this one is a mind blower. The hardiest men will be tears by the end of this one. At the end of this movie your stomach will be in knots your heart will be broken, and you will want to watch this movie over again cause it affected you so deeply. Ladies and Gentlemen run don't walk to the video store for this overlooked gem. I give it a 10/10