Searingly intense (if propagandistic) film

Rating: 9/10 (7 April 2003)

The performances here are great, sometimes shockingly so. Ellen Burstyn disappears completely into her character--she's so authentic in this role that it chokes your heart. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly have never been this good (some would say they've never been good at all, before or since). Even Marlon Wayans, that goofiest of Wayanses, is unexpectedly touching in his key supporting role.
Darren Aronofksy's technique is quite astonishing. It's interesting (and heartening) to see how popular the movie's become with young people, as its chilly formalism has more in common with art-house provocateurs like Peter Greenaway than with all those flashy new talents who used to make music videos. At the same time, the technical virtuosity never overwhelms the narrative; in fact, it tricks you into thinking the simplistic message is more profound than it is. The rolling, nightmarish sequence leading to the film's climax, made even more feverish by Clint Mansell's incessant score, is so searingly intense that you may feel physically sick afterwards. (At least, in the unedited version it is.) It may be the most powerful and disturbing fifteen minutes ever put on film, and to deny its effectiveness, even as a propaganda tool, would be wrong.
And a propaganda tool is exactly what it is. As an anti-drug message film, it's nowhere near as sophisticated as `Trainspotting'; its message is writ far too large for that. And as entertaining as the film's aesthetic elements are, the relentless moralizing can be wearying. `Requiem for a Dream' puts its message into a box (in this case a refrigerator) and hits you over the head with it over and over again.
Then again, the aesthetic elements are so strong that talk of thematic subtleties seems like carping. And really, I wasn't bothered by the movie's obviousness so much, even if I did notice it. Highly recommended, with the tiniest grain of salt. 9 out of 10.