powerful

Rating: 9/10 (15 February 2007)

Some movies are made to make money, some are made to entertain and some are made in art form with messages .Requiem For a Dream is a well made art form movie directed by Darren Aronofsky .Although it is a very powerful film with the depressive story line and great finale.
Requiem for a Dream is about the four people who lose control of their lives in a short time period, divided by summer, fall and winter. This is a movie about addictions and dreams .Whether addiction to drugs, to television, to sex or chocolate all represent the same weakness of the human being .And their dreams which are destroyed by addiction.
First we are introduced by summer. Summer is peaceful and joyful than the other two sections. Everything seems good for the characters .Three friends who addicted to heroin, hope that one day they can live the American dream. Harry and Tyrone in to the drug dealing to make it big and Marion, Harry's girl friend, wants to open her store. Sara Goldfarb, Harry's, mother is a television junkie and her obsession is fitting the red dress for television show, she starts a diet program and hopes lose some weights.
We can not see the warm ambiance of the summer in the fall section. In fall, ambiance is getting colder and disturbing scenes create very discomfort feelings before the winter. Because of their individual addictions, everything gets worse and worse in the winter. In last part, effective and aggressive scenes are not easy to watch.
Sound effect and score of the movie is primary key for the story line. Film opens with the scene of commercial television show and we hear the sound of the audience, but in same time we also hear the dark and disturbing music from the background which gives a depression of the movie in the beginning. This and the other depressive sounds, in a pessimistic way, keep the audience's attention until the closing credits. Score of the Requiem for a Dream is also getting darker in every season.
Darren Aronfsky uses so many effects to make the movie more emotional. Drug using and sex scenes are very intense. Cash registers tallying in drug dealing scenes show director's great vision.
Acting is almost great in the movie. Ellen Burstyn is magnificent as a Sara Goldfarb, Jennifer Connolly and Jared Leto are great and Marlon Wayens is also totally different than his other roles and he completely fits his character.
Requiem for a Dream is obviously dark and very depressive movie in a lot of way. In many level, it is very discomfort film to watch. However, Darren Aronfsky manages to give us sad and confuse feeling every scene of the movie. I believe that, story, effects, acting, score and director's vision make the Requiem for a Dream one of the most impressive and effective movie ever made