Are You With Us?: Requiem for a Dream
By Ryan Mazie
January 13, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
An examination on addiction and the lengths people will go to get their fix, Requiem provides little solace for the four New York characters the film follows throughout summer, fall, and winter.
Requiem starts during the summer in Brooklyn, New York (where Aronofsky was born and raised) with the recently widowed Sara Goldfarb. Sleepwalking through her days, watching infomercial after infomercial, Sara finds joy again when she gets a call to be on a game show. Wanting to fit into her favorite red dress, she starts taking weight loss amphetamine pills and sedatives to curb her sugar addiction. Her son, Henry (Jared Leto), warns her about the pills' addictive nature, but he shouldn’t be talking. Henry and his friend, Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans), are heroin dealers and addicts. Selling drugs to get rich, Tyrone is saving up his money to finally get off the streets and open up a clothing store with Marion Silver. Marion is an addict as well as Henry’s girlfriend, who is pregnant with his child. Caught in the middle of a drug war, causing their supply to dwindle and costs soar, the three are thrown into violent situations and desperate measures to make money and score a hit, while Sara’s addiction is causing frightening hallucinations, causing her to slowly slip into insanity.
Trading sex for drugs, health and sanity for weight-loss, and possessions for drug money, Darren Aronofsky delivers a ruthless, relentless, and all too real interpretation of addiction in his adaptation of the same-name 1978 novel by Hubert Selby, Jr. Extremely graphic in depiction, Requiem for a Dream is not for the faint of heart. Slapped with an NC-17 rating (due to an explicit sex scene although I have a feeling the graphic drug content had something to do with it as well), Requiem received a shockwave of criticism when first released. While in no way whatsoever glorifying recreational drug use, some question whether its scared-straight tactics would still give off a negative influence, similar to the controversy surrounding Oliver Stone’s extremely violent, yet socially aware and consequence-showing Natural Born Killers (a movie I found unique but overrated).
However, history shows that controversy doesn’t always equate with profit. Aronofsky was unwilling to edit his film down to an R-rating and indie distributor Artisan concurred, meaning the film went out unrated. Released October 2, 2000 in only two locations, Requiem slowly expanded for almost three months until reaching a 93 theater high at the ill-advised time, two weekends before Christmas. Lost souls fighting addiction and the holiday times really don’t go together for most. Costing only $4.5 million to make, the total gross ended up with an okay $3.6 million (doing a smidge better overseas). Put in context, this is unofficially (due to being listed theatrically as unrated) the seventh highest-grossing NC-17 rated film ever.
While numbers like that cause most independent films to go away and never be heard from again, Requiem has stuck with us for its brilliant acting performances and always current themes of addiction and drugs.
Jared Leto is brilliant in his portrayal as Henry, who is handicapped by his constant craving for heroin. A teen heartthrob in the early ‘90s, Leto showed great artistic growth at the end of the decade with bit and supporting parts in acclaimed fare like The Thin Red Line, American Psycho, and two of my favorite films: Girl, Interrupted and the always fantastic Fight Club. In real life when one is drinking, the person doesn’t flaunt it around, but tries (usually unsuccessfully) to hide their drunkenness. In movie-land, this is what most actors get wrong in a pet peeve of mine, but not here. Leto conceals his jitters and never hams up his highs of injecting and lows of withdrawal. Although he did not get an Oscar nomination for his role, fortunately he was noticed by most critics and was offered roles in bigger movies like Panic Room and Alexander. With his last commercial film being 2005’s ignored but fantastic Lord of War and no projects lined-up, Leto turned his back on the movie industry in favor to focus his energy on his rock band 30 Seconds to Mars in which he is the front man. Known for throwing all of his energy into a project whether going bald for the drubbed and deservedly so Lonely Hearts or gaining nearly 70 pounds to play Mark David Chapman in the misguided biopic with Lindsay Lohan, Chapter 27, hopefully Jared will sooner than later put his vocals to rest and return to the camera.
Garnering the film’s only Oscar nomination was Ellen Burstyn. Originally turning down her role in disgust, after she saw Aronofsky’s first film, Pi, she changed her mind. Looking unrecognizable (wearing fat suit prosthetics and wigs throughout the film), Burstyn is heartbreaking as a widower who only hopes, albeit unrealistically through enabling, the best for her son. In a tearful monologue towards the end (keep your tissues on hand), Burstyn is enthralling to watch.
Surprisingly Marlon Wayans, finding earlier success on TV, gives a great dramatic performance that you’d never think he had in him. However, his big screen comedy hit released three months earlier, Scary Movie (I’ll go on the record that this movie is absolutely hilarious and you’d be soulless not to chuckle), took him on the path that led to commercially successful yet eye-rolling-ly bad films like White Chicks and Little Man. With the long delayed Richard Pryor biopic still in the cards, Marlon can finally return to dramatic form mixed in with his comedic sensibilities.
And then there is Jennifer Connelly…. I have always despised Jennifer Connelly. But at this point, I am sure you have come to realize this. Call it a New Year’s miracle, but through these Are You With Us? columns I have been shown the light – coming full circle, embracing Jennifer Connelly as a well to do actress after watching Requiem for a Dream. In one of her darkest roles, Jennifer is jaw-dropping in the lengths she goes to get money for drugs, whether it be sleeping with a psychiatrist for a prescription or befriending pimps to keep up her habit…while pregnant. Connelly is wonderful in the part and while receiving high marks, was overshadowed by the kudos handed to Leto and Burstyn. Yet I could not imagine any other actress being more perfectly cast in a very revealing (emotionally and physically) part with enough energy to do an equal or better job. Jennifer Connelly, you have proved me wrong and you are a mighty fine actress. Dark Water is forgiven.
Even with all of the fantastic acting performances, what really makes the film tick is director and co-writer Aronofsky. With the critics in his pocket after his feature film debut Pi, Aronofsky did not hold back with Requiem. Stylized using various shooting methods, which included attaching cameras to actors, extreme close-up shots and time-lapse photography coupled with brilliant lighting for the hallucinating sequences, the film has Aronofsky’s distinct fingerprint on its every frame. Hyper kinetic with over 2,000 cuts (most films average a third of that amount), he gets the tense nature just right. He shows how drugs detach a person from their actual self. He also provides one of the most uncomfortable scenes in movie history when Jared Leto has his arm amputated after his mid-arm turns into a gooey, bruised mess from all of the needle injections. If you squealed during 127 Hours, then definitely hit the fast-forward button for this. Dreary and intense, sequences like this split the critics in half. While averaging a high 78% on Rottentomatoes.com, when you look at the more conservative top critics, the percent significantly lowers to 66%. Too graphic and overdone for some, this is what hurt the film’s Oscar chances.
Requiem for a Dream is not an easy movie, but an important one to see for its depiction of addiction. Living in a culture obsessed with shows like Intervention and Celebrity Rehab, it is nice to see an equally emotional yet fictional account be produced by Hollywood without PG-13 sugarcoating. It is also an important film in terms of seeing Aronofsky’s career progress artistically - a director who will command his first big-budget studio production, The Wolverine, in 2012. Requiem for a Dream contains what nightmares are made of, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid the all too real feeling fiction can bring thanks to a great script, cast, and director.
Verdict: With Us
8 out of 10