Requiem for a Dream

A book by Hubert Selby Jr. and a movie based on the novel by Darren Aronofsky

Requiem means ‘a mass for the dead’. I could not understand the name in the first instant. I had heard a lot about the movie, but later found that it is a novel too. I decided to read the novel before watching the movie. I was also warned that this is probably the most depressing movie ever!

The novel turned out to be a real depressive. It is based on 4 people - a woman, her son, his friend and girlfriend – their baseless dreams, how they stick to their dreams, not realizing and even failing to recognize the lives these dreams push them into. Most of the story runs around drugs, addiction, hallucination and the overall resulting foolishness. The first half is easy to read although you see build-up for a depressive second half. The second half is killing depressive. You read and re-read the depressive happenings in their lives and towards the end, the worst extreme one’s life can go into. And you just wish that this soon ends.

When I started reading the second half, I knew I had to finish it in a go because I could not take the sadness into installments. When I watched the movie, it turned out to be a cakewalk compared to the novel. Or the way someone commented on me, “Now I know the extent of your gross imaginations!”

But jokes apart, the movie is fast and the way it is directed, it does not make life of the viewer that hard, whereas in the novel, Selby really scratches into the (defunct) thought processes and inner feelings of the individuals and that is really difficult to accommodate to. In fact, I wondered at a certain stage if these things can really happen in an addict’s life or this is mere exaggeration. Not that I can tell now, but I think it is possible.

Another reason the novel was very hard on me was because it reflected me in its characters and that tore me apart. Not that I take drugs or have hallucinations, but on a more general level, I too take life for granted to a certain extent, take certain things lightly than what they deserve and procrastinate the probable essentials, expecting that future will provide me sufficient opportunity to deal with the priorities. I may not end up into an end as deteriorated as these characters’ but that does not mean we should not strive to live our priorities. I prefer not to dig into examples as that would be difficult to explain, but I feel that I am no exception and this applies to most of us at one or other level.

The novel was quick read but had difficult slang usage at places. Further, the novel is written in big paragraphs, very unusual to my knowledge, with many characters talking in one paragraph and the reader is left to decipher who is speaking what from context, style etc. The novel is not great from a writing point of view; it is the content which is the heart of the novel.

The movie’s direction and colors are very good. The movie’s OST is probably one of the best I have heard and the theme songs (Summer Overture/Meltdown/Lux Aeterna) are too good with a fabulous use of electrical instruments. Two scenes of deterioration in the end are very well shot and are the only parts better elaborated than the novel.

Ellen Burstyn’s lead performance is one of the best female performances I have yet seen – it seems that she has a tremendous control over her face movements; so much that it seems she can move any muscle she likes and keep the rest at rest. Found Jennifer Connelly to be very beautiful and her acting is also very good. The guys in the movie are OK.

Overall, I would count Requiem for a Dream as a good novel and movie and despite its depressive character, I would recommend people with some heart to read/watch it.