Movies

… could have been a lot better. I just finished watching the movie, and I while I thought it was a pretty good movie, I would have liked a more solid ending. What I expected was the boat finding Kee, and then a brief segment showing the future: the Human Project area, with more people having kids, perhaps showing some signs that civilization might return to its pre-crisis state, etc. Instead I was given an ending showing the boat finding Kee, Theo being dead, and.. well, that was it! Kee and her baby got away, but I would have liked a bit more.

I don’t know if the movie was meant to be a blend of sci-fi / horror, but I actually found Children of Men to be pretty terrifying, moreso than most “real” horror movies. (Actually, I find a lot of “real” horror movies to just be stupid, but I digress.) Why? Because what it depicted really could happen. I’m not talking about the infertility issue (even though I suppose that, too, could happen), but instead, I’m talking about the general condition of the world. The totalitarian Britain that was depicted just creeped me out. It reminded me way too much of what I know about Nazi Germany.

A few pointless but fun asides about the movie:

• I recognized the fellow that played Syd, Peter Mullan, as the guy who gave one of the speeches to the Scottish soldiers in Braveheart. The speech he gave was the one with “We don’t have to die for these bastards, let’s go home!” in it. And yes, I was totally addicted to Braveheart. I’ve seen it many, many times.
• There were a few nods toward Buddhism in the movie. One of the things that Kee and her female protector (I don’t recall her name) kept chanting in the car was Om Mani Padme Hung, probably the most well-known Tibetan Buddhist mantra. Jasper, the old male friend of Theo, said “Shanti, shanti, shanti” a few times, which is also a Buddhist mantra. I couldn’t quite understand what Kee’s female friend was saying on the bus, when the guard was harassing her, but it sounded more like a Christian prayer than a Buddhist mantra. Whatever the religion was supposed to be, I liked the nods to Buddhism.

Warning: Some spoilers within.

Last night I watched Requiem for Dream. I wanted to watch it after reading about it (after having discovered it via the theme music in the Da Vinci Code trailer).

It was a roller coaster of a movie. I had a general idea about what the movie was: the crumbling of 4 lives as their drug addictions become worse and worse. However, I don’t think I was really prepared for it. It’s one thing to read a synopsis of the movie, and another to watch it unfold.

Requiem for a Dream is one of those movies that doesn’t pull any punches. One after another, it slaps you in the face, saying “LOOK! This is what drug addiction is like!” In the beginning of the movie, the four characters are starting to have problems. The mother is lonely and wants to lose weight. Marion (Connelly) isn’t quite sure what she wants, besides to spend time with Harry. Harry and his pal want want to get high, but they quickly move on to wanting to make money from selling drugs.. so they can get high even more often.

Things start to fly downhill from there. The mother becomes addicted to speed as her diet pill, prescribed to her by a doctor. She starts hallucinating, imagining she’s going to be on television, and then everything will be ok.

Harry and his buddy make a ton of money at first, but Harry and Marion quickly blow most of that feeding their drug addiction. The relationship between Harry and Marion quickly decays, particularly when Marion agrees to have sex with an old friend for money.

There aren’t any happy moments in the movie. Most movies introduce problems, and then counter those problems with solutions. Requiem doesn’t. It throws one problem after another, compounding each other, leading to the eventual downfall of all four characters. The movie ends with Marion attending an orgy for more drug money, since drugs are all she can think about anymore; Harry lies in a hospital bed with one of his arms amputated, due to it basically rotting off from repeated injections in the same spot; Sarah, the mother, is placed in a psych ward, after electrotherapy failed to help her; and Tyrone, Harry’s friend, ends up in prison.

Requiem for a Dream was a riveting movie. I wouldn’t say enjoyable - in fact, it was painful to watch for me. It kind of wrenched at my heart over and over. I genuinely felt sorry for all of the characters. I’m still a bit depressed from watching it. It’s not something I’d watch again, if I came across it while channel surfing. It was just too disturbing; I’d even go so far as to say upsetting. However, I’m glad I watched it. It made me see addiction in a different light than I had before. Even though I thought it was really disturbing and depressing, I think a lot of college students (or maybe even high school students) would do well to watch it (with a parent, in regards to high school students). Maybe it’d help steer them clear of drugs. I’ve never had any real inclination to ‘experiment’ with drugs, but after watching Requiem for a Dream, I know I sure as hell won’t be touching them.

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