Hi Everyone,
Right after I finished reading the book, Requiem For A Dream, by Hubert Selby Jr., I watched the movie twice. I liked the movie yet I loved the book. This is why.
As I am sure everyone can understand it is really hard to communicate 80,000 plus words from a book into a movie with the running time of 1 hour and 42 minutes. The essence of the book was, however, in the movie so that was good.
All the scenes with Sara Goldfarb, played by Ellen Burstyn, were as close to the book as possible. I love the way she deteriorated. Her hair, makeup and wardrobe were on point making Sara a believable character. The woman can act! However, the scenes with Harry Goldfarb, Tyrone C. Love and Marion Silver played by Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans and Jennifer Connelly were terribly underplayed.
There simply was not enough time to show (or tell) the depths that a drug addiction, especially one like heroin, can do to one person, let alone three. The book did an excellent job though. The book, in my opinion, did not sanitize the heroin addictions but the movie did.
Am I the only one who noticed that Marion’s apartment was too tidy, or that all three actors had very good personal hygiene? All of their clothes were well kept, they were always clean and their faces didn’t reveal an addiction to anything. The only time I saw semi-dark circles under Harry’s eyes were when he was arguing with Marion close to the end of the movie but not at the end when he was awake for over 24 hours. How does that happen?
Heroin addicts (as all addicts) only care about feeding their addiction. Eating any food, even junk food, is like personal hygiene, an afterthought for all junkies, or as they like to say, dope fiend. So how is it that Harry and Marion were well groomed and their hair was always cut well and clean? Did the actors have an aversion to getting themselves dirty?
I am of the belief that they did. This is the second movie I saw with Jennifer Connelly playing a junkie. The first was, Shelter, when got tickets to see it at TIFF 2014. I had a hard time focussing on the movie though because her shining hair was blinding. You know, just like it was in, Requiem For A Dream. If an actor is going to play a character like a junkie, the least they could do is get in role and get dirty. I mean, that is what they are getting paid for.
Overall, Requiem For A Dream is a good movie. If you are going to see the movie, I would recommend reading the book first because it was better. There are some areas that were glossed over and shortchanged for time.
Thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
by 
by