| TITLE: | "Requiem for a Dream" | AUTHOR: | H. Selby Jr. & D. Aronofsky |
| GENRE: | Drug-Culture Drama | CIRCA: | Present |
| LOCATION: | New York City | PAGES: | 105 |
| SUB TO: | **** | SUB BY: | **** |
| READER: | SC | DATE: | February 21, 1999 |
LOGLINE: Prescription and illegal drug use destroy a woman, her son, and his friends.
COMMENT SUMMARY: Based on the book of the same name by Hubert Selby Jr., "Requiem for a Dream" focuses on the damage that drug abuse inevitably causes in otherwise-ordinary people's lives. In screenplay form, the story offers an unusual synthesis of disparate styles: we see Less than Zero horror, Ally McBeal visual effects, and Pulp Fiction cool, all blended together. The story's unity comes not from a protagonist but from a common theme—all of the principal characters are ruined by drugs. This is not a traditional 'drugs are bad' drama. The authors' stylistic touches add an effective, hallucinogenic visual impact to the story. Unfortunately, they also add a cartoonish tinge to the characters. Were it not for the screenplay's somber message, we could imagine that this were comedy. The characters are one-dimensional, even farce-like, and as a result the dramatic effectiveness of the story is vastly weakened. We never care enough about these people—even Sara—for their tragic demises to truly move us. Thus, "Requiem for a Dream" finds itself a bit lost, neither harsh, real-world drama, nor light, culture-savvy entertainment.
| Excellent | Good | Fair | Poor | |
| Story: | X | |||
| Characters: | X | |||
| Dialogue: | X | |||
| Structure: | X | |||
| Setting: | X |
BUDGET: Medium/Low
RECOMMENDATION: Pass
SYNOPSIS: As SARA GOLDFARB watches her favorite game show host, TAPPY TIBBONS, on TV, her son, HARRY, 20's, suddenly unplugs the set. Sara locks herself in the closet in protest, howling. Harry attempts to take the TV, but discovers that it is chained to a nearby radiator. After much cajoling, he manages to get the key from Sara. Harry unlocks the TV and takes it from the apartment, promising to bring it back in a few hours. Apparently this is promise he has made many times before.
Harry and his friend, TYRONE C. LOVE, take the TV to a pawn shop. They collect a few dollars, which they immediately use to but heroin. Harry and Tyrone shoot up. Later, Harry and Tyrone dream of going big time—buying a pound of pure dope and selling it themselves on the street.
Harry has a beautiful girlfriend, MARION. She's a poor rich kid, estranged from her folks, with a little Heroin hobby of her own. She's also an amateur fashion designer. Harry and Marion shoot up, then talk about their dreams. Harry wants them to open up a store where they'll sell her clothing in the front, and in the back, they'll have a little record shop where Harry can play DJ.
Sara has a dream of her own, and it's about to come true: she gets a phone call from a man who tells her that she's been selected to be a contestant on a TV game show. Sara is delighted. She decides to dye her hair and go on a diet to make herself look like the beautiful woman she once was. Her friends RAE and ADA help her with her hair, and offer dieting advice. A questionnaire arrives in the mail for Sara from the game show. She and her friendly excitedly fill it out.
Tyrone manages to make the big score. He shows the drugs to Harry. Harry wants to start cutting it and sell it, but Tyrone wants to try it out first, to see how much they need to cut (dilute) the dope. Harry agrees, and they shoot up. They begin dealing, and become small-time success stories. Suddenly, both have money, expensive clothes. Tyrone gets a beautiful young girlfriend. Harry and Marion look at stores for rent. Harry decides to buy his mother a brand new TV set.
Sara is having problems with her new diet, however. The refrigerator in her apartment has come to life. It groans and growls, shakes and rumbles at her. Her resistance begins to crack; she decides to go see a doctor, who gives her a prescription for "diet" pills. The pills quench her ravenous appetite--and calm the fridge—but a new problem develops. Sara finds herself nervously twitching and fidgeting. Overwhelmed with nervous energy, she cleans every square inch of her apartment.
Harry visits his mother. She is delighted by his new, polished appearance. He is overwhelmed by her frenetic energy. Suspicious, he quickly learns about the diet pills. Harry's been around the block; he knows that his mother is becoming hooked on amphetamines. He warns her about the dangers of the pills, but she downplays his concerns. She proudly tells him about the game show. Harry leaves, disturbed by his mother's new persona. To calm himself, he shoots up.
Tyrone, meanwhile, has attracted the attention of the local Mr. Big, BRODY. But just as Brody is congratulating Tyrone, a rival drug dealer kills Brody. Tyrone runs for life, and is caught by the police. Harry and Marion bail him out. Most of their cash and their drugs are gone now. They learn that a drug war has started. No one can buy drugs right now, because the drug lords aren't selling. Marion suggests that they just stop using. They attempt to do so, but Heroin withdrawal proves too painful. They shoot up the remainder of their stash.
Sara finds that her diet pills are becoming less effective. She calls the doctor's office; a nurse tells her that she's "adjusting" to the pills. The nurse tells Sara not to worry. Sara hangs up, then takes not one but two pills. Suddenly, she is happy again. On the TV, RED SARA appears with Tappy Tibbons. (Red Sara is a young, idealized version of Sara who wears a sexy red dress.)
Later, Sara tries to call the game show to find out when she'll be on. No one at the show seems to know anything about her, however. As Sara's worries escalate, the fridge begins to come alive again, shaking, rumbling, groaning at her. Meanwhile, Tyrone can't find any drugs to buy. Marion and Harry's relationship begins to suffer. She blames Harry for her withdrawal symptoms. Their need becomes intense, unbearable.
Harry tells Marion that they need one thousand dollars. He suggests she gets it from her former therapist, the sleazy ARNOLD THE SHRINK, who used to sleep with her. Marion finds him disgusting, but she desperately needs that high. She has sex with Arnold, and he gives her the grand.
Harry and Tyrone take the money and try to buy drugs. The deal goes bad; the drug lords take the drugs and run. Now no one in New York can get Heroin. Harry and Tyrone decide to drive to Miami to buy drugs at the source. Marion is desperate for a high when Harry comes back. When he explains that he doesn't have anything, she screams at him. Harry gives her the number of BIG TIM, a man who trades drugs for sex. Marion goes to Big Tim's apartment and trades her body for drugs.
Sara's delusions grow. Red Sara and Tappy appear in her living room. Suddenly, the entire living room becomes a TV set. Sara's fridge morphs into a giant mouth, which shouts, "Feed me! Sara, feed me!" The paramedics come for Sara, and take her away to the hospital.
During the drive to Miami, Harry's arm begins to hurt. It's become infected from shooting up. Tyrone drives Harry to a doctor in Georgia. The doctor recognizes that Harry and Tyrone are junkies. He calls the cops. Both Harry and Tyrone are arrested. Back in New York, Marion visits Big Tim again. This time, twenty men are waiting, along with six other drug-desperate women. Marion engages in a giant orgy with all of them.
Sara, meanwhile, does not respond to any conventional therapy. She refuses to eat. Her doctor decides to give her electroshock therapy. In a prison hospital, Harry's infected arm is amputated. Tyrone, in prison, drills holes in license plates while fighting off the chills and tremors of Heroin withdrawal.
COMMENTS: "Requiem for a Dream" offers a visually-imaginative slant on the "just say no" theme. The authors have gone out of their way to incorporate a diverse blend of filmmaking styles. Sara's story often evokes Mel Brooks or Woody Allen comedy. Marion's story features the Less Than Zero horror of selling one's body just to get that oh-so needed high. Harry and Tyrone's story features Pulp Fiction cool, a romanticized vision of small-time drug culture.
Additionally, all of these characters' stories are enhanced by the use of Ally McBeal visual effects—metaphors breathed into life. We have a talking refrigerator, and an apartment that becomes a TV game show set. We also see fantasies of youth come alive, and impulses (such as wanting to stab someone) given on-screen time as real moments.
This is not what we expect when it comes to an anti-drug film, and the authors' departure from the norm has both good and bad consequences. Visually, this would be an interesting project for any director to sink his teeth into. Despite the screenplay's often-chaotic photography, the scenes are repeatedly imaginative and provoking. The authors have effectively managed to evoke the distance between the false fantasies of drugs and the harsh realities of an uncaring world.
But on the negative side, all of these stylistic touches distance us from the heart of the matter: the characters. Story is incidental to this drama; this is a screenplay about human beings and human lives. Yet within the context of the authors' visual frenzy, the characters somehow become less than human. They become cartoons, in fact, distanced from the very reality that the screenplay seeks to show.
We never really come to care about Sara, Harry, Marion, or Tyrone, because we never become convinced that they are real. The screenplay almost deliberately undermines itself by bordering too close to parody. Sara chaining her TV set to the radiator, for example, shows us not a mother's desperate attempts to protect her valuables from her son, but rather a writer's attempt to generate farce. This is a critical error. Without a firm basis in reality, even Marion's fall from grace lacks emotional impact. If we don't believe that these events are really happening, they become meaningless.
The script is weakened by several logical errors. First, the screenplay establishes that Marion's parents are wealthy, and that she can get money from them whenever she needs it. Why, then, does Marion prostitute herself to get the small change to buy Heroin? Similarly, the authors fail to establish the logic of Harry and Tyrone's business.
And it is hard to believe that only one group of drug lords (from Miami, no less) controls the entire drug trade in New York City. What about the Mafia? Don't they get a piece of the big apple? Can we really believe that no one is able to buy drugs in NYC due to a drug-blockade?
Again, these breaches of logic undermine the story's reality. "Requiem" needs to maintain a credible, real-life world in order to be successful. This does not mean that the authors must give up their visual liberties, but it does mean that the characters and the action must be done as honestly as possible. Until then, "Requiem for a Dream" plays too much like a melodramatic soap opera.
Reader's Notes:
A disjointed script that became a jarring feature film in the hands of director Darren Aronofsky (Pi). "Requiem" scored high on shock value, but the film, like the script, didn't put enough effort into making the audience care about the characters.