Requiem for a Dream is a movie directed by Darren Aronofsky starring Jennifer Connely, Marlon Wayans, Jared Leto, and Ellen Burstyn. It is about drug addicts Harry (Leto), Tyrone (Marlon), and Harry’s girlfriend Marion (Connely) trying to do different things to get a hold of drugs while Harry’s mother Sara (Burstyn) slowly gets crazy trying to lose weight on diet pills. I really liked the acting, cinematographic techniques, but didn’t like the story 🙁
Every actor/actress was really good, but Burstyn’s acting playing playing Sara was superb. It was so good that it made me scared. She was playing a woman who lost all her purpose after the death of his husband, a woman who was trying to find purpose through watching TV contests and looking good. That feeling of lostness was conveyed really well to the audience. This isn’t about acting but the characters felt really authentic through their appearances too. In a scene where Sara was crying, her nose was running and it felt real. Usually such details are not shown but I really appreciate such details because they convey that feeling of realness.
The cinematographic techniques were used very appropriately. For example, when Sara was getting dizzy the room was turning around and her eyes movements were weird. That made us feel her dizziness as well. Also when Harry, and Tyrone were taking pills their movements were so fast. It made me think that maybe when people take drugs normal movements seem so fast to them since their brain is kinda mushed. These techniques made me feel like I was Sara or Harry or Tyrone. It made me feel like I’m in that atmosphere. In turn, this is the reason why I didn’t like story – or to be more exact why I got so afraid of the story. The atmopshere it created was so real that I got afraid and disgusted. The scenes at the end where they were cutting Harry’s arm, the scene where racist cops were harassing Tyrone, the scene where doctors were elecrocuting Sara… They were great scenes but I barely made it to the end. The story was disgusting but I understand that art is a reflection of life, and lives which are wasted by drug abuse (either “fun” drugs or drugs for diets) should be shown and depicted.