This, I have to say, it one of my favorite Hollywood films. I have to warn you, it is an extremely dark tale of drug addiction and will haunt you for a long time. I haven't seen the movie in a few years but right now I am thinking about the movie with a sense of dread.
The movie is directed by Darren Arnoofsky, who is quite well known for his disturbing films. I have not seen many of them but this one is definitely that. He uses very short length scenes for his movies and in the making of Requiem, they shot nearly 3 times as many scenes as a normal film would use. This was incredible when you consider that Requiem was considered "low-budget."
The story follows 4 separate individuals who are all tied together. Sara is the mother of a heroin addicted teen, Harry (Jared Leto), who will stop by to pawn her television from time-to-time in order to score drugs for himself, his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly, and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans.)
Sara is a widow and lives a relatively boring life until one day she receives a phone call informing her she is to be included on a game show in the near future.
She desperately wants to fit into her red dress, which was her deceased husband's favorite. She doesn't yet know the date of the game show and checks her mailbox every day in the hopes the official letter is there. She goes through a series of unsuccessful diets and eventually ends up on amphetamines prescribed by a crooked doctor. She begins to lose weight rapidly and is amazed at how much energy she has. Her addiction to these pills spirals out of control quickly and that is all I am going to say about that because it is a major part of the story and I don't want to spoil it.
In the meantime Harry and Tyrone manage to pull off a small enterprise of reselling heroin for the summer and actually start making a bunch of money while also not dipping into the goods too often themselves. They plan to save enough money for Marion to open a dress shop as she is a quite talented designer. Things are looking good for these guys and you just know that a downfall is coming ..... and does it ever.
I don't want to say too much about the film because if you haven't seen it the way the film progresses is just perfect. It will be a real eye-opener for viewers because drug-addiction rarely has a happy ending. I think the film is even more meaningful to people who have known someone afflicted with a crippling addiction and is familiar with the incredible lengths said people will go to in order to continue using.
One of the most shocking things to me about this film is the fact that Marlon Wayans was cast in it at all.
If you are familiar with his body of work you will know that he is primarily in movies that are terrible comedies with very few exceptions. However, just like the selection of Heath Ledger for "The Joker," sometimes casting decision don't make any sense to us common folk but was such an amazing decision for the film. Marlon (just like everyone else in this move) was fantastic.
Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as "Sara" but was beaten by Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich - which is a bunch of bull-hickey! Watch this movie and you will see what I am talking about. But be forewarned: Much like most of the Korean movies I talk about, this one is disturbing.
This is a rare moment in American film-making where it isn't a story about the "good guys" winning. It is dark, powerful, incredibly well-directed, and the casting was perfect. Therefore it gets a high score from me. It received an NC-17 rating in the USA because director Darren Arnofsky refused to take out a few scenes. This was true in most other countries as well and it was even banned in certain Asian countries because of the sexual content. Anofsky insisted that the message could not be properly told without these scenes and he refused to abandon his creative integrity even though it certainly reduced the profitability of the movie immensely. I respect integrity over profit any day.