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Requiem for a Dream Reviewed 

After months of anticipation, I finally managed to see Requiem for a Dream this 
past week.   In my view, Requiem for a Dream is a portrait of a socially 
atomised society on the slide.  It presents to us four disparate individuals, and 
takes on a journey through the various addictions that they pursue to salve and 
distract themselves from the monotony and isolation of everyday life, and 
indeed the pain of living itself.     

Requiem paints us a picture of the young and the elderly left all at sea in a 
social diaspora and reveals the cold, institutional responses that society has to 
offer them when they are at their most vulnerable.  This particular sub-plot  
walks us through the familiar crime and punishment social responses to the 
drug addictions of the young; and takes a detour through the more socially 
acceptable addictions and deprivations of the middle aged, namely: comfort 
food, 24 hour television, dieting regimes and prescription drugs.    

The car crash vision of contemporary urban life that Aronofsky presents us is at 
turns utterly fascinating and too fleeting to fully grasp.  My initial feeling about 
Requiem for a Dream whilst in the theatre was that it was a beautiful failure.  
I'm not altogether sure that I mean that in a conventionally negative sense, 
but rather think of Requiem for a Dream in terms of musician Kim Gordon's 
descriptions of the beauty and fascination that can be found in seeing things 
fall apart.     

Although Requiem's attempts at sweeping social critique are admirable, I felt 
that the film lacked a fair amount of focus, and while reminiscent of Magnolia, 
it seemed to contain less connections and grand segues than that film did.  
Requiem's breakneck pace also seemed unable to keep the audience up to 
speed with the four character narratives that it was tracking.  As a 
consequence, Requiem's characters never seemed fully formed, and 
Aronofsky's depiction of them seemed at turns drive-by casual and 
confrontingly interior.   

Although I didn't think that it would be the case, I found myself thoroughly 
frustrated with Matthew Libatique's cinematography. He really did seem to be 
trying out every camera trick and shot variation in the book to the point of 
distraction.  And worse still, often with no good reason.  Even when there was 
an inspired, diegetic use of something like time lapse photography in the film, 
it's effect was hopelessly dulled by the cold overuse of the very same effect 
in earlier parts of the film.  As time went on, Requiem's constant stylistic 
switches became distracting and gimmicky, cheapening the overall effect of 
some truly dynamic, expressionistic cinematography.   

There are moments of exquisite beauty in Requiem for a Dream, and it easily 
has one of the most poignant and sensual bedroom scenes I've ever seen.  If 
someone had told me that split frame photography could be so intimate before 
I'd seen this film, I wouldn't have believed them.  Requiem for a Dream's 
swelling score, brought to the table by Clint Mansell and The Kronos Quartet, is 
this film's trump card; as are the blinding performances of Jared Leto and 
Ellen Burstyn in this film's key roles.    

You can find promotional images and the official synopsis from Requiem 
for a Dream below.  

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