Requiem for a Dream

There’s a scene in this movie between Harry (Jared Leto) and his mother Sarah (Ellen Burstyn). He’s come by to apologize for not being around more, and as an apology for putting her through some hard times, he’s buying her a new TV. It’s two people, shot plainly and honestly, acting their asses off. There’s minimal cuts, and no score to speak; just two actors. It is the most honest and touching scene in the movie. I wish the rest of the movie was like this scene. I wish the movie was content and comfortable with its disconcerting and uncomfortable story that it let the story play out honestly. Because the four principal actors here are outstanding. Not a one of them is less than excellent. But they are all let down by a director who either saw too many music videos, or had no confidence in his actors to relay the movie’s message. This movie is stuffed with almost every mediocre kind of camera trickery and editing hocus-pocus in an effort to, ostensibly pull in the viewer to the world of these four junkies. To make the viewer feel what they do. But all I felt was a wall between me and the movie. Slow motion, blur effects, rapid-fire montages, sped-up film, cameras mounted on the actors, fish-eye lenses … I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. Every one of these is employed, sometimes more than one at a time, and it is so unbelievably distracting and off-putting. I couldn’t get into the story, because the movie kept assaulting my senses with a barrage of flash cuts and wild camera swings. I wasn’t pulled in; I was pushed away. Another big mistake for me was that, of the four characters, three are already junkies when the movie starts. For Sarah, we see her start as a normal person and accidentally slide into addiction. Her story is tragic and is the saddest of the four. But the other three are already hopeless when the movie starts. Where is there to go for a character when the movie starts with them in a dead end? How am I supposed to feel bad for their downfall when they’re already steering the plane into a nosedive? The answer is, it can’t be done. All that is left is to watch their depravity take it’s logical next steps; near death experiences, run-ins with the law, health setbacks, and hooking. Hard for me to be sad about that when it was as obvious as a white whale on a black background. I know this is a highly regarded movie. I had a lot of people telling me to be prepared to walk away depressed and broken. I was expecting something like Kids. But it feels more like a well-acted, R-rated DARE ad made by a mid-90’s music video director. Maybe you, dear reader, is able to see past the directorial style, or even can embrace it. I could not.