Requiem for a Dream

Rating: 9/10 (8 July 2007)

Trainspotting showed the pleasure of them, Blow showed the selling of them, and this clever drama shows the effects of addiction to drugs, from director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler). Basically the story revolves around the lives of four individual characters, and what they experience as they take their quantities of drugs. These are Sara Goldfarb (The Exorcist's Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Ellen Burstyn) who is hooked on game shows and sweet foods, desperate to lose weight with diet pills, that she gets addicted to and overdoses, causing hallucinations, increased loneliness, and eventually she goes to hospital, after going to the game show studio and looking a drugged up wreck. Then her heroin addict son Harry (American Psycho's Jared Leto), along with his friend Tyrone C. Love (Scary Movie's Marlon Wayans) who both pawn a TV for a new one, and for drugs money, and Harry unfortunately is victim to overdose, but Tyrone pays the price being put in prison for possession. Finally, Harry's girlfriend Marion Silver (A Beautiful Mind's Jennifer Connelly) is helping with their drug dealing and profit, but is degrading herself by spending time at stag parties with other men. Also starring Flubber's Christopher McDonald as Tappy Tibbons, Happiness's Louise Lasser as Ada and Volcano's Keith David as Little John. This film uses clever split-screen technique, fast paced montage-like moments, especially when characters take their drugs, huge close-ups and exaggerated sound effects, all creating convincing highs and lows of drug taking. The cast is very good, the film is almost all disturbing, the music by Clint Mansell throughout is great, and the theme is very powerful, it has been called one of the most depressing films ever made, but it is an essential drama to see. Very good!