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I've seen this movie a long time ago, it was very disturbing to me and i wasn't able to sit through it entirely, i had to pause and go back after a while because it's shocking to say the least, so i didn't feel like i watched it the way it meant to be seen, that's why i watched it again, and now i can safely say that it's Darren Aronofsky's best work to date, and easily a disturbing masterpiece.
The movie addresses drug addiction like no movie ever before, never seen a movie that actually made me sick to my stomach, it's an idea that you have to live with far after the movie ends. the intensity of the movie is very shocking that you can't escape from. you can't not engage in the movie, because it's right in your face. the movie is at that level of disturbance never achieved before, that how powerful this movie is.
It's starts with two heroin junkies, Harry Goldfarb (played by Jared Leto) and Tyrone C. Love (played by Marlon Wayans), harry is out of money, so he steals his mother television and sell it to get the money needed to get high, along with him is his girlfriend Marion Silver (played by Jennifer Connelly) whose also a junkie, they get all high together and one of them get the idea of buying some pure heroin and sell it to make money. the business was doing well for a while and they raised few money until a handout with the main distributor goes wrong and Tyrone get locked up, so Harry use the money raised to bail him out, so they find themselves at the same spot again, meanwhile harry's mother Sara Goldfarb (played by Ellen Burstyn) is a lonely old women who watches the same TV show everyday, and dreams about being on TV, so she gets a letter in the mail that she will be a contestant on the show, so in a desperate effort to lose weight to fit in her old dress, she starts taking pills prescribed by her doctor.
The movie have this amazing ability to capture the desperation of the protagonists, in which harry and Marion is battling addiction, trying to make enough money to open a store and live a new life, Sara is desperately trying to lose wight, so she starts drug abuse, she starts getting illusions and can't sleep at night, it's all very disturbing as the movie leaves nothing to the imagination.
The movie employ visuals with an intense and a masterful Music by Clint Mansell, sometimes a split screen showing you two different things, some horror elements, like a jumping refrigerator, very short scenes overlapping to show you three sometimes four different events happening at the same time, it's all very valid to make the movie intense, it doesn't handle one event at a time, and it's sad and shocking, as you get to see four lives destroyed by drug addiction with no hope, the movie starts with a normal life and it all goes down from there, it's predictable outcome but presented with shocking endings, some scenes actually gave me goosebumps, the illusions contain some masterful visuals and the score is one of the best movie scores of all time, Clint Mansell's Lux Aeterna is a masterpiece.
It's my first time watching a psychological drama, and it left me astounded, glued to my seat, disturbed and horrified, made me sick, i doubt that anyone would watch this movie and don't feel that way, it's an anti-drug masterpiece, and it had fantastic performances specially from Ellen Burstyn, i have no input as how much she gained/lost weight, how much she had to go through to present such a performance but it was a shocking transformation through out the movie, along side of that, was an equally astonishing performance by Jennifer Connelly, the movie even manage to make a mediocre actor such as Marlon Wayans looks believable, that's how much Darren Aronofsky is a masterful director.
Overall, very powerful and disturbing yet valid anti-drug movie, with one of the best scores ever in a motion picture, and it's a unique intense experience never before felt, and it gets better everytime.
8/10
