Shattered Dreams

Rating: 7/10 (17 August 2003)

"Requiem for a Dream" is written to scare the hell out of anyone who even thinks of using drugs.
Ellen Burstyn was Oscar worthy as Sara, the lonely Jewish mother who passes time by watching TV and talking to the other old Jewish women on her block in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. She's important to no one until she receives a mysterious call telling her she's going to be on TV. She finds a red dress that she hasn't worn in years and no longer fits into. She sees her doctor, who prescribes weight-loss stimulants. She quickly becomes addicted to both TV and the pills, begins hallucinating, and eventually suffers full-blown schizophrenia.
Jared Leto is Sara's son Harry. His drugs of choice are marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. He and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) score and distribute the drugs around the Coney Island-Brighton Beach area. (Wayans is an ironic choice, as he is pro-drug and thinks addiction is something to joke about, as evidenced by his "Scary Movie.")
The incredibly beautiful and talented Jennifer Connelly is Marion, Harry's girlfriend. She gets hooked almost immediately, and her dire need of future fixes is rough. But her frantic search for drugs around the apartment mid-way through the film is gut-wrenching.
My main problem with the movie is this: Am I supposed to feel sorry for these three cokeheads? Because I don't. Unlike Sara, whose ethically challenged doctor prescribed her addictive drugs, they made a conscious decision to use. In a way, they got what they deserved. My other problem is that I did not need the extreme closeups of dilating eyes, popping pills, coke snorts, and nickle bags being zip-locked. The sound effects got really annoying too. I got the hint the first time around; they didn't need to repeat it a dozen times.
The end of this film is absolutely brutal. Addiction defeats all of the characters in different ways; they all suffer different fates, all horrible.