A MOVIE FOR DRUGGIES OF ALL AGES

"Requiem for a Dream," with its nightmare landscape of young folks on dope
and seniors strung out on prescription diet pills, raises a timely question.

Can you have a drug-free and free-drug America at the same time? If you
were awake for the presidential debates, you know that both candidates want
to fight a war on drugs at the same time they want to push them to the elderly.

As omnipresent TV ads keep reminding us, Gov. Bush and Vice President Gore
want to ensure that nothing stands between seniors and their pills.

As the baby boomers move past 50 and toward the golden years, both
candidates want the "pass the toochie" ethos of their generation codified
as a federal guarantee.

This will be a sure vote-getter as the acid flashback gives way to acid
reflux, and drugs, once recreational, become indispensable. (Follow old
Woodstock acts like Carlos Santana, and you can hear fans say, "Stay away
from the brown Prilosec!")

One gets the feeling that if drug fiends voted as assiduously as seniors,
Gore would be opening up the Strategic Crack Reserves right now. Too bad
Timothy Leary didn't live long enough to provide a slogan for prescription
drug plans:

Tune in. Turn on. Retire.

In "Requiem for a Dream," this is the unwitting philosophy of Sara Goldfarb
(Ellen Burstyn), a lonely widow getting by on her husband's meager pension,
occasional and terrifying visits from her heroin-addict son (Jared Leto)
and pathetic dreams of appearing on a popular TV game show.

Sara thinks her dream has come true when she's accepted as a potential
contestant and prepares by trying to lose enough weight to fit into her
favorite dress.

After getting a diet-pill prescription from her family doctor, Sophie
begins losing weight - and her mind. The signs of amphetamine addiction are
recognized, ironically, by her junkie son, who pleads with her to quit.
This is a darkly funny role reversal of earlier "Requiem" scenes.

It's too late for Sara, and also for Leto's character, who (with pal Marlon
Wayans) has dreams of dealing only enough dope to start a fashion boutique
with his girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly).

The aim of "Requiem" is to expose the horror of addiction (not just to
drugs, but to TV, food, gambling, and so on) by dragging the viewer along
as the characters make their irreversible slide into complete degradation.

But the movie fails to make important, early emotional connections to its
assortment of addicts. By the time the characters reach prison, or the
brothel, or the hospital, or the asylum, their situations seem more
clinical than personal.

On the other hand, the movie is so slickly photographed, paced and edited,
and its nocturnal urban landscapes so surreal, it's easy to see why
writer/director Darren Aronofsky has been chosen to write and direct
"Batman Beyond."