The last two years running, on our Anniversary, Pete and I have been to see two of the single most depressing films of my life. Both films left us feeling not only deeply sad but hopeless, which is an altogether new low. I recommend them and strongly advise you NOT to see them in equal measure. They are:
‘Revolutionary Road’
Trailer link:
and
‘Blue Valentine’
Trailer Link:
There is a 3rd film to add to this list that I saw many years ago now but would never watch again called ‘Requiem for a dream’ and this one tops the list.
You can see the trailer here
The first two are centered around relationships, RR is Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet and BV is (my favourite actor and second only to John Cusack) Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. They are full of the most beautiful love followed by the greatest heart ache and no happy endings. But the worst thing about both of them is that they are full of things gone unsaid that would / could change the dwindling path to destruction they are both on and that’s what hurts the most to watch. It’s sort of like screaming at a horror film when someone is walking straight towards the serial killer, why won’t they stoP?!?! urgh. If only, if only.
Requiem again has a love story at it’s centre with Jennifer Connolly and Jared Leto but it also follows a few other characters, his mother’s loneliness and decline into madness as she waits for the call from her favourite game show and unknowingly pops speed to slim into her favourite dress for the big event. Watching someone go insane is very difficult indeed but watching her son, Leto, guiltily steal and sell her possessions from under her nose to pay for his heroin addiction is worse still. Heroin that he then injects into a gapping open pussing wound in the crook of his arm, completely sickening. Unbearable. He desperately wants out but can’t seem to stop.
So if you’re feeling a little too happy with life and like everything is going your way and think you need a reality check, go and watch these films. You will cry like a baby, actually more like sob as if you’re mother had just died and you will feel the greatest amount of sorrow, hopelessness and heartache I guarantee it.
Next year we are going to find a comedy, I would like to feel anything but hopeless on my next wedding anniversary thank you very much.
2 comments:
I just watched blue valentine last night and i have to say, i really liked it!!! one, because it so accurately portrays both the falling in and the falling out of a relationship. two, because it wasn't over dramatised. so rare in an american film. it was so gutsy with its reality. three, because it's impeccalby acted and shot. and four, because it's quite painfully beautiful. the way having a cry is sort of nice. i think the deal breaker is whether you're watching it when you're single, or in a couple. watching it single you can be like: oh yeah, see, all that fuss and it's just turns rotten and messy. watching it in a couple: doomsday feelings.
just thought i'd add my tuppence. i don't think everyone should not watch it. but the other two films, yes. don't watch them. :) x
Yes you are right, but the beauty of all three is to watch and not watch in equal measure. You're so right about doomsday if you're in a couple, that was my dilemma, if their banjo, tap dancing love can go so sour how're the rest of us mortals to survive? Ugh!
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