Amazing (Requiem for a Dream (DVD))

Member Name: GR-Design

Product:	Requiem for a Dream (DVD)
Date:	04/10/02 (116 review reads)
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I’d seen this film around, read the highly praising reviews and seen the decent scores the film had conjured up on various film websites, so when I saw it on play.com for £6.49, this film was mine! I’m not going to kid you, this film is hard to swallow, it looks at the various types of effects drugs can have on 4 different people, all related in some way, but experiencing the effects a lot different from each other.

It doesn’t sound much for a movie, but I promise you, this will have you gripped until the dramatic end and make you want to watch it again just to make sure everything was as you saw it and your own mind wasn’t playing tricks on you, it really is that powerful a film.

Requiem for a Dream was directed by Darren Aronofsky who is responsible for such film as ‘Pi’ and ‘Protozoa’, both highly rated film, infact Protozota has 9.1 on IMDb, but that’s only out of 27 votes, so by the looks of that, it’s probably extremely hard to find and I wouldn’t have a clue what it’s about! It was made with a budget of just $4.5m, but like I have always said, the low budget films are often the best, this one is just one that proves that. Ok, it didn’t do so well in the cinema, it wasn’t even released over here, but if you read my reviews regularly, how many times do I say ‘the best films are the ones that didn’t do great in the cinema’….oh how I love to be right!

Now, I was wondering what the hell ‘Requiem’ meant, as you probably are, so I looked it up and it means…’ A hymn, composition, or service for the dead.’ So, that and a dream. Yer, I can see where the title comes from after watching the film, want to know? Then watch it! I’m trying to get you interested you see, this film deserves to be watched by all of you out there!

PLOT

We are introduced to Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), mo
ther of Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) and widower to her much loved husband. She loves her TV and one gameshow type programme in particular, one which helps you loose weight…or something like that anyway! Harry is into drugs, and we soon find out that to raise his cash, he nicks his mothers TV, sells it to a man down the road, spends the cash on whatever drug he wants. Sara then goes down to the man a couple of hours later and buys the TV back, this is a recurring thing. You may wonder why she doesn’t just stop him. 1, she’s scared he will do something, 2, she loves him, he’s the only thing she has got, she doesn’t want to push him away.

Harry has a mate, Tyron (Marlon Wayans) who does all the drugs with him, they soon find out that they can make a load of money by cutting the drugs themselves and selling them and it all goes to plan. Harry’s girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connely) is happy too, her business plans are getting off the ground and with the occasional dope session, nothing seems to be getting in her way. It all seems pretty rosy, but then with drugs, something has got to go wrong somewhere.

Sara, living on her own turns to food and her TV for comfort. She gets a phone call from a TV show telling her that she is a winner, she is going to be on television. Getting all excited, something new has entered her life, she find’s a dress she wants to wear. It’s too small, she has to diet, but eggs and grapefruit isn’t going to be quick enough. She goes to some kind of doctor who prescribes her pills, one for breakfast, one for lunch, one for dinner…that’s her 3 meals, and one before she goes to bed. These pills are infact speed, little does she know though, she doesn’t need to eat anymore, she’s happy.

We move on a little in the story, Sara is going insane, seeing things, the fridge is after her. Harry and Tyrone are rapidly loosing their fortunes, but are still
highly addicted, so is Marion, Harries girlfriend, they need hits in the morning, afternoon and night, and more. Trouble is, cash is running out, there is one way they can get cash though, and that involves Marion having sex with another bloke. But they are that desperate. The rest…..you’ll have to watch and see for yourself.

THE STORY

The story behind this film is extremely powerful. We watch normal human beings having their lives taken away from them one by one because of drugs, we watch them take the wrong paths, we watch them dig themselves their own graves, but they don’t know it. We see Sara going absolutely wacko on speed over the course of around 6 months, thinking her fridge is coming to get her. We see all this and then it all climaxes into an extremely dramatic ending. An ending to a film so powerful that this has got to be one of the best endings I have ever seen in a film, and god I’ve watched a few!

The way that it all evolves in front of your eyes is genius. We see it from all angles, we see the downward spiral, and if there was ever a film to put you off drugs, this would be it.

ACTING

Acting is excellent. For the actors it would be an extremely hard piece of work, especially for Ellen Burstyn, who although I have never heard of before, pull’s off a superior piece of acting for the role she is playing. Everything she did was right and she really did look the part as well as play the part. I must just say, just because I haven’t heard of her, it doesn’t mean she hasn’t been around, she has starred in loads of films, right from 1961 to the present, so just call me dumb for not hearing of her!

Marlon Wayans is always going to be ‘the guy from Scary Movie’. Yes, that’s right, he’s the funny half gay guy in the two movies who we all loved. His acting hasn’t really changed, just he does it in a different manor, playing the r
ole of a drug addict instead of a dick loving straight guy extremely well. Credit goes where credits due. I didn’t like Jared Leto in The Thin Red Line, and I still don’t like him much, must just be personal preference, but that’s not to say that his acting isn’t good, it is, just like the rest of them, they play their extremely touch roles extremely well.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

it’s not so much special effects that this film uses, it more the use of camera work. A lot of the time were watching split screen. The film is unique in the way that it’s made, flashing from one viewpoint to the next extremely quickly, close ups of a remote control flashing to the TV being switched on. Close up’s are used a hell of a lot in the film along with fast camerawork and it works extremely well, and links in the film quite nicely (think of speed, which this film is basically made around!). Some excellent photography work that I would love to see used in other films.

Along with that is the excellent use of music. To describe the type of music would be hard, what do you call the mix of bass, drums and violins?! Sounds pretty bad doesn’t it, but sounds absolutely wonderful in the film and just highlights the scenes even more. The music is the same right the way throughout the films, used in scenes which don’t require dialogue, they just require your attention, the music just brings you in deeper. Top scores for music and cinematography.

OVERALL

This film is brilliant, no, sorry BRILLIANT, I just had to highlight my point there. It starts off slow, you do wonder what your watching and why your watching it, but give it time and you will be hooked and totally mesmerised by the ending. It didn’t get 8.5 and placed in 45th position on the IMDB database for nothing you know.

However, for those of you who don’t like to see graphic scenes in front of your eyes, this is not for you
. It has an 18 certificate slapped on the front of it, and if we had 21 certificates in the UK it would probably have that on the front. Scenes including drug usage, sex, bad language and prostitution are in all this film. It’s also not for those who are easily disturbed, this film will disturb all of us, and that’s a promise.

Watch it, for £6.49 on DVD it’s a steal.

Highly Recommended.

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