Requiem for a dream torrent

Basic Plot: A drug addict, Harry Goldfarb, and his friends are finding and using and doing whatever they can to keep it that way. Harry's mother, Sarah, is also finding and using and addicted - to television, then diet pills. The situation starts off bad and gets so much worse.

Aronofsky's style is quite individualized and very apparent - the viewer is quite aware of the direction. His work here is very similar to that in "Pi", although he is now in full color. He uses montages of drug use effectively to get the viewer inside of the repetitive nature of addiction. The technique works to bring the viewer close to each character.

The performances are great. Ellen Burstyn is amazing. Impressed by Tom Hanks' weight-difference in "Cast Away"? Burstyn does it, and does it to the extreme. Her character is well-crafted; she pulls Sarah off very, very well. Even Marlon Wayans does a good job in his first straight-man role (that I've seen). The only problem I had was Jared Leto's waxing and waning accent. He must be simply bad with accents. He was in an Irish film, the name of which escapes me, and I swear his voice was dubbed in by Chris O'Donnell. Leto does have the pretty face. And he proves in Requiem that he is more of a talent than he sometimes gets credit for.

This film, maybe more than any other in recent memory, really pulls the viewer into the story to pull up a seat with the characters. The story is character-based and it works because the characters are good and believable. This isn't just a drug movie about lazy kid addicts - it shows the span of addiction. The devastation that results from addiction is presented, as is the devastation that leads to addiction in the first place, vicious-circle style.

If you watch Requiem now, you'll be all set to chime in when Aronofsky becomes The Next Big Thing.