IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched on Blu-Ray
With his debut "Pi", Darren Aronofsky quickly established himself among the ranks of independent filmmakers and followed up two years later with "Requiem For A Dream". This time in colour, but in his idiosyncratic way of creating images, hardly changed and even more extreme. His trademark hip-hop montage (click-whoosh-pfmp-gulp - simply unique) or the use of Snorricam sometimes make the film seem like a composition of hypnotic and mind-bending images, constantly growing in unison with a sprawling story. Initially clearly structured, the production soon turns into a delirium of surreal sceneries, reality - and thus our view of the characters - becomes increasingly blurred in a cocktail of obsessiveness and shattered dreams.
And this is only the effect Aronofsky provides. "Requiem For A Dream is more, much more. The original by novelist Selby offers tons of arguments to wrap the film in such images. So we follow the main characters on their steady descent, rejoice for them, suffer with them. And because of the small-town narrative character, the story takes us perhaps even more than we might like. It doesn't matter whether Sara leads a lonely life and thus takes her attempts to lose weight to the extreme, or when Harry makes his first successes in the drug business and, together with his partner, stumbles into the harsh reality of drug crime.
Even though the story design starts out like a two-track system, the plot lines quickly connect to the same and inevitable fate. From this, together with the sad back story of the Goldfarb family, the story draws its energy when both mother and son threaten to fail grandly in their endeavours. One can gladly spoil this, because the message of the film is already in the title alone. So the "eternal peace" can already be seen in words, and yet the manner is an unsparing and visually powerful metaphor in sombre colours. Not even the fact that the sets and locations look like they were cobbled together from the 60s and 70s (apart from a modern TV set or the backdrops of the TV studio) can hide the fact that in this retroantlitz it is hard to believe that the film is set in the USA and has a hefty British twist.
It goes without saying that I must also mention Clint Mansell's score in this film. With this concept of quiet and atmospheric synth sounds in the contrasted interplay of the string foursome "Kronos Quartet", Mansell has imprinted a strongly hypnotic undertone on the film and thus set himself a small monument. Through the minimalist arrangement of the music, Mansell fits fully into the cinematic concept. In contrast to his and Aronofsky's debut "Pi", a few notes and stale sounds were enough to properly capture the mood.
All that was missing to complete the picture was a cast that knew how to portray the roles appropriately, something Aronofsky succeeded in doing, for all his love of hectic editing storms. Even if one can attribute at least a very good performance to Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly or, surprisingly, Marlon Wayans - they are all played up against the wall by Ellen Burstyn. The Oscar-nominated and award-winning US actress from "The Exorcist" already cuts a fine figure in the first scenes, but then, when the effect of the pills sets in, she unleashes a veritable thunderstorm of a performance and plays herself into a real frenzy. An absolutely exceptional actress.
