Purposefully hideous tale about a far too real journey

Rating: 9/10 (26 March 2006)

You will come out of Requiem For A Dream feeling like you've just seen your children die. It's a heart crushing experience that runs on flashy paranoia and vomit inducing grit. If you don't feel sick you will definitely be upset. It's such a powerful film that features inspired performances and spot on direction. This is a film that utilises every ounce of material it is given to put it's audience through a torturous yet utterly compelling voyage of why drug addiction is anything but glorious. It's not the easiest film to watch, but it is certainly an important one.
Harry and Ty are partners in petty crime. They both dwell into cocaine and heroin which leads to increasingly gruesome consequences, sending them on a long road trip to Florida. Harry goes out with Marion, another recreational drug user who along with Harry, is having money issues, and sets out to degrade herself in order to avoid freezing to death in the New York winter. Harry's mother Sara is a lonely, weight-obsessed TV addict, who is naively given speed pills in order to shed her pounds and get on a TV game show. All of them are spiralling out of control.
Two things that amazed me about Aronofsky's film: Marlon Wayans, that really unfunny bloke from such laugh riots as White Chicks and Don't Be A Menace... is excellent here. Secondly, a film this bleak and raw is actually one of the most visually stylish films I've ever seen. This is all done with purpose in mind. Whereas other directors have used hazy cinematography and quick-fire editing for solely experimental purposes (I'm thinking mostly of Oliver Stone) Aronofsky creates a style that is every bit as flashy as it is meretricious. One minute Marion and Harry are lying together in a stoned haze of ecstasy, professing their love for each other in poetic, yet disturbing words. When the characters are on the move, everything illuminated, and sized up to show New York at it's most gruesome and low-key. This style makes for an incredibly watchable experience, without ever adding a lighter touch to the drama. Similarly themed pictures have had comedy touches such as Danny Boyle's Trainspotting or Scorsese's Goodfellas. Requiem owes a lot more to the horror genre, as in many ways it is an endurance test, one that kicks it's audience in the head with it's visuals and pierces through to the heart with it's narrative. The soundtrack is by Kronos Quartet, who also provided the music for Michael Mann's Heat. It provides a simmering sound wave that always suggests danger, and then goes full tilt along with the narrative's varying crescendos.
It is a career high point for all concerned. Jared Leto continues to eschew his heartthrob aura by dirtying himself up as much as possible, and choosing an intelligent project, when he so easily could be Michael Bay's poster boy. Marlon Wayans really surprised me here. I'm tempted to forgive him for all his previous misdeeds, as I see a really good performer trapped behind the shtick. But the standouts are the females: Jennifer Connolly is great as the self-degrading girlfriend of Harry and Ellen Burstyn delivers a gruelling performance of an isolated woman slowly walking the line of sanity and insanity, and delivering some of the films most heart-shattering moments.
There isn't much room for hope in 'Requiem'. The screenwriter, Hubert Selby Jr., has never been one to shy away from the less-than-cheerful, and we are presented with a story full of darkness and repulsion. There is too much power in this tale to make it depressing. It is more than tragic, but serves a very pertinent purpose. It has to be seen.