Junkie fables can be told well or poorly, but they're all basically the same. Then we watch as dope enslaves them, while they desperately try to reclaim that illusory sense of power and are reduced to abject misery. Leto and Connelly make an affecting young couple in love going no place. The time period is unspecified, though it's clearly more recent than Selby's book. Wayans, who may have the deadliest suavity of all his brothers, plays Tyrone as a bubbly enthusiast, which is a nice touch.
Drug users can be an awful lot of fun when things are going well.
But the best Aronofsky can provide him with, in terms of an inner life, is a hackneyed recurring fantasy about his mother. When Selby's book was first published, it might have been original to observe that Americans are addicted in all possible directions, not just to narcotics but also to television, diet pills, impossible visions of celebrity. This touch is original to Aronofsky and Selby's screenplay, and it's inspired if grotesque satire. As Harry and Tyrone launch a naive scheme to become players in the Brooklyn drug market, and Marion dreams of a future as a fashion designer with her own boutique, Sara develops her own fantasy. A marketing firm calls to recruit her as a possible game-show contestant, and she becomes fixated on stuffing herself back into a favorite red dress for her date with stardom.