ADDICTION, CLOSE UP

Burstyn's Raw Performance Powers Nightmarish `Requiem'

In the vernacular of every back-alley shooting gallery, the characters in
``Requiem for a Dream'' are looking to score ``a taste'' to see them through
another day on the street, or another lonely afternoon in their tenement
apartment/cell. Each deludes him-or herself into thinking, ``Hey, just one
more hit -- and then I'll clean up.'' Of course one hit leads to another and
another . . . and another, because the dream they're chasing -- that good
ol' reliable American Dream -- is nothing but a lie, a rust-fouled pipe
dream.

``Requiem,'' adapted by writer-director Darren Aronofsky from Hubert Selby
Jr.'s novel of the same title, is getting a lot of Oscar buzz, thanks mainly
to Ellen Burstyn's amazing performance as a Brooklyn widow who, in her
pursuit of a new identity, becomes addicted to Valium and diet pills.
Burstyn has always been terrific on screen, but here she puts it all on the
line to become one of the most frightened and vulnerable creatures ever to
skitter from under an encrusted stove. If Burstyn doesn't snag a trophy come
Oscar time, expect a recount. She's that good.

Burstyn's Sara Goldfarb is but one of four characters trapped in a vicious
cycle of addiction. The others are: Harry (Jared Leto), Sara's
sometimes-responsible junkie son; Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), Harry's
joke-a-minute partner in highs and lows; and Marion (Jennifer Connelly),
Harry's driven but, in the end, equally self-delusional girlfriend.

``Requiem,'' which arrives unrated, is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Like ``Trainspotting,'' also taken from a modern classic about addiction,
Aronofsky's urban drama is both bleak and bleakly funny, appalling in its
excesses and exhilarating in its execution. That rush or moment of drugged
ecstasy is captured through exaggerated sound and shock cuts of cooking
scag, protracted hypo, pupils that dilate -- wham! -- like time-lapse solar
flares. Thanks to Aronofsky's technical virtuosity (he worked similar tricks
in ``Pi,'' his first feature), this shorthand montage proves exhilarating,
at times even laugh-out-loud funny. It's such a ``high'' that the lows to
come are all the more depressing.

For Selby -- and now Aronofsky -- heroin, acid and, yes, all those ``safe''
over-the-counter pharmaceuticals are meant as a metaphor for fear -- fear of
tackling life head-on, fear of peering deep into one's mirror reflection.

Everyone here has tuned out to one degree or another. Sara and her tenement
cronies are television junkies, addicted as much to the Proctor & Gamble
jingles as they are to the daytime soaps and the invitations to ``Come on
dooowwwn!'' It's a promotional call from a game show that pushes Sara over
the edge. Determined to fit into the red dress she wore at her son's bar
mitzvah, she begins popping amphetamine-laced diet pills with her morning
coffee. The hallucinations start with the mantel clock and soon include
floating cakes and pies. Bouts of paranoid schizophrenia are not far off.

For their part, the ever-enterprising Harry, Tyrone and Marion are looking
to score enough heroin to satisfy their immediate needs and then maybe do a
little dealing on the side. Their rainy-day stash grows, until there's a
panic in needle park and it's every junkie for him-or herself.

If you're looking for a movie with a pat moral or a warm-and-fuzzy fade-out,
``Requiem for a Dream'' is not for you. In many ways, this film's
antecedents are the classic ``downers'' of the late '60s and early '70s,
such movies as ``Midnight Cowboy,'' ``Carnal Knowledge'' and ``Desperate
Characters'' with Shirley MacLaine. Indeed, Aronofsky relies on a lot of the
techniques in vogue during the counterculture years (split screen for
alienated lovers, a fish-eye lens for the junkie's perspective). Makes
sense. These movies were, after all, formative influences on author Selby.

No question about it -- Aronofsky has nailed the book's manic,
stream-of-consciousness style. His performances, on the other hand, range
from the vaguely sympathetic (Leto) to the show-offy (Wayans) to the ``What
am I doing here?'' (Connelly). Burstyn takes the suffering to another level.
Her Sara -- robe clenched at her throat, fingers tapping incessantly, eyes
darting fearfully -- is Selby's Sara to a T. And when, sitting across from
her son at the kitchen table, she flashes a pained smile and says,
``Everybody likes me now. . . . I have a reason to get up in the morning,''
we begin to understand the extent of this woman's pain. One can only guess
at the dark recesses Burstyn had to explore to find such a battered soul.

Contact Glenn Lovell at glovell@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5639.

Requiem for a Dream * 1/2

Unrated (could be R for overall intensity, profanity, drug use, nudity)
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
Director-writer: Darren Aronofsky (from a novel by Hubert Selby Jr.) Running
time: 1 hour, 42 minutes