Summary

• Jennifer Connelly embodies the harrowing descent into addiction in Requiem for a Dream, showcasing the tragic consequences of drug abuse.
• Connelly's portrayal of Marion's journey from hopeful entrepreneur to coerced sex worker highlights the destructive nature of addiction.
• Through immersive preparation and dedication, Connelly brings depth and authenticity to Marion's character in this raw, affecting performance.

Jennifer Connelly in Darren Aronofsky's affecting psychological drama and his second movie follows four characters whose lives are all affected by addiction. As the film progresses, each character is driven further by their delusions until they end in catastrophe, curled in a fetal position in whatever horrible prison, hospital, or worse they find themselves in. Aronofsky's filmmaking style — pupils' dilating, timelapse shots, and rapid cuts — is now the visual language of how to show drug use on screen.

Requiem for a Dream stars Jared Leto as Harry Goldfarb, Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb, Marlon Wayans as Tyrone C. Love, and Jennifer Connelly as Marion Silver. While most of the four characters are close at the start of the film, the ending of Requiem for a Dream finds them separated from one another, from themselves, and even from limbs in one case. In each story, the characters' dreams are crushed by their insidious and unrelenting need for their drug fix. Marion's journey downward from a hopeful entrepreneur is particularly tragic.

Jennifer Connelly's Requiem For A Dream Character Supplies Herself With Drugs After Harry Leaves

At the start of the film, Marion and her boyfriend Harry have big dreams for their future. They want to open up a clothing store to sell Marion's designs and have been selling (and using) heroin to save enough money. After their friend Tyrone is caught up in a gang shootout, Marion and Harry have to use their savings to bail him out.

Due to a shootout, the price of heroin has doubled and Harry travels from New York to Florida to acquire a shipment. Before he leaves, he encourages Marion to engage in sex work in order to earn more money.

This, combined with their withdrawal symptoms, puts increased strain on their relationship. In her first encounter, Marion imagines stabbing her first client in the hand with a fork before getting intimate with him. By the end of the film, in Requiem for a Dream's grotesque fast-cutting ending, Marion is shown engaged in a sex act with another woman as a gaggle of cheering men throw money at them. The camera lingers on Marion, who clearly does not want to be engaged in this act.

Moments later, she returns home and curls up on a couch clutching a small bag of heroin as her payment, only now she is smiling. Marion has been taken advantage of because of her drug addiction and forced into a life she did not want. Worse, when she arrives home, she pushes her clothing designs off the couch and onto the floor, a gesture of how she has given up any pretense of wanting to open a store, trapped in a cycle of abuse.

How Jennifer Connelly Prepared For Requiem For A Dream

Jennifer Connelly's performance in Requiem for a Dream is raw and unflinching. It's one of Connelly's best roles and the actor met with people who were addicted to drugs to prepare for the movie. In an interview with Vulture, Connelly described how she got into the head of her character,

I took to making a bunch of my own clothing and accessories... But I got into trying to inhabit some aspects of that character’s world — painting things that I thought that she would, drawing and sewing and listening to music that I thought she might’ve been listening to. And I spent time meeting people my age who were on the streets and using, talking to them about their experiences.

This method of acting worked because Marion does feel like a real person. Her desperate fall into drug addiction is a distressing watch and her eyes radiate a deep sadness and emptiness. When Marion pushes her clothing designs to the ground to cradle her bag of heroin, the audience can feel that the character had at one point cared for her work the same way she now cares for her drugs. It's Connelly's experience with people her age in similar situations and attention to her character that makes this moment in Requiem for a Dream so affecting.

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