Requiem For A Dream

Directed by Darron Aronofsky

Produced by Palmer West and Eric Watson

Written by Hubert Selby Jr. and Darron Aronofsky

Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans. 

“I'm somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they'll all like me....It's a reason to get up in the morning....It's a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right.” (Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb) 

Requiem for a Dream is director Darron Aronofsky’s telescope into the world of drug addiction.  Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) and girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) share a spontaneous, carefree world.  Along with Harry’s longtime friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), the threesome decide drug dealing is the quickest way to “make it big.”  Business is good until the drugs start to consume them.  Harry’s widowed mother (Ellen Burstyn) is lonely.  As she wonders if her life has meaning, she gets an offer to be on TV.  Looking at the size of her prized red dress and the size of her aging body, Sara Goldfarb decides diet pills will do the trick. 

True to its title, the film follows four lives, four addictions, four dead ambitions. 

Requiem is hard to watch.  It vividly portrays the darkness and utter hopelessness of drug addiction.  It is likely to leave the viewer cringing but unable to turn away.  Aronofsky doesn’t just tell the story, he shows it in a roller coaster ride of stunning artistry.  It is disturbing and realistic.  Like the jarring, repetitive soundtrack, the addicts go through the same cycle again and again.  Farther and farther into the darkness they spiral, until the only way to break the cycle is death. 

All four characters begin with big ambitions.  Marion dreams of opening her own clothing boutique.  Sara is going to be on her favorite TV show.  In the beginning, the drugs are a way to reach their goals.  But the characters become so consumed that they forget all their dreams, desires, and their very humanity.  We see this loss of humanity in the ways the characters debase themselves to obtain the drugs.  Life for Harry, Marion, Tyrone, and Sara becomes all about getting the next fix, whatever the price.  The drugs destroy not only dreams and potential, but also relationships, physical health, and mental stability.

A look at his films will reveal Aronofsky’s deep interest in failed potential induced by obsession.  His latest film, the Academy Award nominated Black Swan, deals with a ballerina’s twisted dedication to her craft.  In The Fountain, a scientist’s obsession with curing his wife leads him to abandon his most important discovery.  But with all their realism and grit,  Aronofsky’s films are not gratuitous.  We get the sense that he his communicating something that cannot be said enough.  Requiem should do for drug usage what Jaws did for swimming alone at night.  Death lies in the dark waters of drug usage, and you can never know when it will destroy you.