Good Lord!

Rating: Null/10 (17 November 2000)

I was tempted to title this "Drugs are bad, mm'kay?" because "Requiem" was so sad I was desperate to inject some humor. Man, what a sad, scary, excellent, grim, disturbing, well-made movie. The more I read about RFAD and learned, the more fascinating it seemed. I'm one of those people who, upon hearing a movie is extremely shocking, has a burning urge to see it as fast as possible to see if it shocks me (especially unrated or NC-17), since I'm pretty jaded. So, I eagerly anticipated seeing it.
Unfortunately, I read so much about the making of the movie that I knew a little too much about the plot going in, so there were few plot surprises. "Requiem" concerns four addicts. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly play a young loving couple, Harry and Marion, who dabble in heroin and plan to make a big sale with their friend Tyrone (Shawn Wayans) so they can be set for life and Marion can start her own business. Their recreational drug use turns into day-to-day addiction, and things start to get ugly. VERY ugly. Ellen Burstyn plays Harry's mother Sarah, a lonely widow who wants to lose weight to fit into a red dress to appear on her favorite TV show. She starts out addicted to TV and candy, but has the bad luck to visit a doctor who-in what I thought was the only unrealistic aspect-gives her an RX for 'diet pills', that turn out to be speed. I say unrealistic because, as anyone who's ever worked in the medical profession knows, few doctors will write a new patient a huge prescription for extremely powerful, addictive controlled substances without even an exam.
I found her story thread the most memorable and heartbreaking. Sarah takes her pills and starts losing weight, plus suddenly becoming energetic and chatty. Like any addictive drug, her happy blue pills stop working after prolonged use, so she ups her dose more...and more...and things slowly start getting very weird and scary. In one of the best scenes midway through, Harry visits her --the only visit where he doesn't openly steal her TV to pawn for dope. He's briefly riding high (in more ways than one) and announces he bought her a big-screen TV; he wanted to do something nice for her and figured out that "TV is her fix". He looks uneasy when she's babbling happily about how she has a reason to get up in the morning, then he hears her grinding her teeth, and figures it out ...the first time in the movie you see real fear in his eyes. Sarah soon starts having very scary strung-out hallucinations-starting out with subtle things like time woozily slowing down and speeding back up, and when her refrigerator suddenly starts moving on its own, the real nightmare begins. An aggressive fridge may sound Monty Python-esque now, but trust me, you won't be smiling by the end of the movie.
One review I read said that the movie not only pulls the rug out from under you, it drags you and the rug down a long flight of stairs into a very dark basement. Another reviewer compared the experience of watching the film to a drug, and that's not too far off the mark either. Whenever a character gets high, there's a slam-bang fast-cut montage of the same images over and over; a sigh, a pupil dilating, cells changing color. The description I probably agree with most came from Aronofsky himself; he compared the film to a jump from a plane without a parachute, and the movie ends three minutes after you hit the ground. The last few minutes that show the gruesome, depressing, worst-case-scenario fates of all four characters are just as intense, hard to watch, and nightmarish as I heard they were. I don't think I will ever forget Harry's mother's transformation from a harmless, plump, friendly older woman to someone so frightening looking that people cringe away in fear and revulsion at the sight of her.
My only complaints would be that I wished there was more time for character development. The film is divided into 3 segments, Summer (things going fine, having fun getting high) Fall (the beginning of the downhill slide) and Winter (end of the line). I would've liked more scenes of what these people and their lives were like before addiction, as well as their relationships with each other. The cast is stellar- Wayans shows that he has the most range and talent of the Wayans bros- I laughed so hard at him in Don't Be A Menace that I ended up buying it, but here ...wow. I would've liked to see more of his character. I never liked Leto much before, but he's excellent and also almost unrecognizable (he dropped 1/5 of his weight for the role and oh, it shows). Connelly I actively disliked before, but I was very impressed and now know she can act. Burstyn gives the performance of a lifetime- not only convincing, but dedicated enough to let the filmmakers make her look like absolute and total hell; few actresses over 55 would probably be as fearless.
Not recommended if you're easily shocked, squeamish, or upset. If you only like movies that take you to a happy place, stay away. Everyone who left the movie theater looked like they had just been hit over the head with a very large board, and we all who knew what we were getting into. Recommended for those who want to see a movie that will completely overtake you and involve you emotionally. In addition, this film should be required viewing for everyone in the fashion industry that supported/glorified that whole 'heroin chic' crap. Also a good movie if you are having some problems in your life and want to put them in perspective VERY fast. 9 out of 10 stars. I'll probably never look at my fridge quite the same again...