Owing to its rather limited cinema release here in the UK there's a fair chance that you missed the opportunity to see Darren Aronofsky's follow up to his attention grabbing debut Pi. If this is the case, then you will have to wait until the video to see this challenging piece of cinema, however I should forewarn you that it is by no means an enjoyable experience. Given a full budget and an adapted screenplay from Hubert Selby Jnr.'s story of the descent into drug addiction, Aronofsky is better equipped to show off his directorial tricks than in his previous feature and does so to devastating effect.
Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans play a group of casual drug users who decide they can make a quick buck by getting into the business through cutting and redistributing the heroin they buy. Unfortunately they don't realise that it is unwise to indulge in your own product if you want to maintain control and so when the supplies begin to dry up they start eating into their profits in an effort to stave off the dreaded withdrawal. Running parallel to this plot is that of Leto's mother, awesomely protrayed by Ellen Burstyn, who receives notification that she has been called up to appear on her favourite gameshow. She becomes obsessed with looking good and enjoying her special day, especially keen to fit into a certain red dress that she likes.To this end she begins to take appetite suppressive amphetamines and rapidly becomes addicted, a problem that her doctor exacerbates by prescribing her Valium.
While there are some strong performances, most notably from Burstyn (and her fridge), the real eye catcher is Aronofsky's visual flair. He seems to have a veritable arsenal of directorial tricks up his sleeve and delights in indulging his talents, initally in amusing and quirky ways but as the protagonists descend further into addiction and paranoia this becomes deliberately more offensive and discomforting. The last five minutes really are a challenge and resulted in several people leaving the screening that I attended. It is this impact that is the film's strength and unfortunately this might be diluted on the small screen, along with an equally difficult soundtrack which really needs turning up loud.
It will be interesting to see if Aronofsky can handle a more dialogue or character driven piece when denied the opportunity to play his visual tricks which the hallucinations and drug trips that Pi and Requiem facilitated. But for the moment, this is a hugely powerful film that while being far from pleasant is very impressive indeed and I thoroughly recommend you watch if you are of a strong disposition; just don't watch it with your mum. Unless she is considering using slimming pills. |
