Jan 10, 2004 05:17 PM
3006 Views
(Updated May 19, 2005 03:16 AM)
Well being as busy as a dyke in a hardware shop didnt make me feel better and so I decided to come up with another review.
The year 2000 saw Hollywood being criticized and condemned by far too many critics for having produced some of the worst films of the century. Enter ''Requiem for a dream'' and all those wagging tongues were swept away into an unknown forest of casuarina trees.
People prefer seeing a movie which has a happy ending but ''Requiem for a dream'' seemed set to defy all odds by being one of the most appreciated movie though it had the highest share of depressing situations ( far more than all the Hollywood movies put together). Well that is an exaggeration but that is how I felt it was. It comes 5th in my list of ''All time favorites'' next only to Godfather 1, Memento, Godfather 2 and A beautiful mind ( in that order ). The director Darren Aronofsky has to be commended for coming up with a movie which has more substance than style. The story is about the lives of 4 people undone by their addictions.
The movie tracks the lives of these people through 3 acts namely ''Summer'', ''Fall'' and ''Winter''. In the first act ''Summer'', the 4 characters Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) , Tyrone (Marlone Wayans), Harry's mother Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) and Harry's girl friend Marianne (Jennifer Connely) start getting addicted to drugs. Harry and his partner in crime Tyrone have dreams about striking it rich by becoming drug dealers and in the process get addicted themselves.
Harry's mother Sara gets an anonymous phone call from a TV station telling her that she is going to be on TV. The widow who was a TV junkie was so excited about it, that she exhausted all possible ways she could probably lose her weight. At the end of it she wasnt convinced and resorted to taking diet pills which came in 4 colors (each color was to be taken at a particular time of the day), and were actually amphetamine tablets. The widow not being aware of this got so addicted to them and she just couldnt live without them. Well about this part I am not sure but I think this is what the director had in his mind. It appeared to me that it was actually the doctor, (who Sara was consulting for losing weight ) who called Sara posing as a TV station reporter. Maybe he was trying to get more people to buy those diet pills off him, so that when they get addicted he would gain from it.
Tyrone who was with Harry in all his endeavours has his own share of problems. The movie doesnt elaborate much on it though.
The 4th character Marianne who wants to make it big in the textile industry by designing her own clothes is tapped outta cash and as if that wasnt enough she is also addicted to drugs which was a result of her association with Harry.
The story now revolves entirely around their lives and how they were affected by it. I dont want to reveal anything more as that will just spoil the fun. What I have written above is just 5% of what happened in the movie and it is the ''Winter'' and the ''Fall'' acts, that generates more interest. The final stretch of the movie turns out to be very depressing and I for one enjoy watching such movies because they make my own calamities not seem so bad. This is a movie which would be best experienced by watching it than by reading other people's opinions about it. So go ahead, rent a VCD or a DVD and watch it NOW.
By the way the sound tracks in the movie were excellent.
On the whole the movie is not about drugs but it is about addiction. And am done.
(I referred to Anthony Leong`s page for some finer details which I myself wasnt aware of, which made watching the movie a second time an enjoyable experience.)
