Requiem For A Dream

Written on 10:34 PM by Arun Sethuraman

Year of Release:2000
Director:Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans,etc.

There aren’t too many movies that move. Sounds ironical, but true. Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For a Dream, based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., is one of those. It may have been touted as one of those movies that’s too graphically shocking and raw to qualify as the perfect home video to watch on a Sunday evening. It may have been banned from screening in a million gazillion theatres for similar reasons. For now, it shall be what I call a must-see for the very same reasons.

Requiem for a dream is the story of four people, their lives and how their lives grow to be controlled by addictions. Simple as it may sound, it strikes one as possibly the most realistic depiction of desperation, love and woes.

The lives of four people.

Harry and Marion(played by Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly respectively) are a beautiful couple. They have dreams; dreams of a better life. Tyrone(Marlon Wayans) is another young man who loves his life and people. Sarah Goldfarb(Ellen Burstyn) is an old mother; left to herself, to sink into her own wrinkles, to stare at the television all day, so much that it pervades her dreams. Aptly named, the movie portrays the efforts of the above characters to realise their dreams and their miserable failures, spiraled by their respective addictions.

The dialogues, though few, are supplemented by stupendous acting and haunting background scores, making the movie an unforgettably disturbing one.

One never realises how movies never tend to be tragic. There are too many movies with happy endings to notice the few that are truly sad. Move over movies with triumphant heroes, elated mothers, dollish women and doltish right-hands. This one has none. The hero loses. His mother drowns in broken dreams. His lover loses. His friend is behind bars.

A must watch for those who do not call a tragedy a farce and those who do.

Posted in English, North American, Tragedy |