Sara Goldfarb Played by Ellen Burstyn
Join now to read essay Sara Goldfarb Played by Ellen Burstyn
This is a movie about a mother named Sara Goldfarb played by Ellen Burstyn, her son and only child Harry played by Jared Leto, his best friend Tyrone C. Love played by Marlon Wayans, and Harry’s girlfriend Marion Silver played by Jennifer Connelly.
The movie opens with a scene in which Harry is in the process of taking his mother’s television against her wishes. His mother is addicted to her T.V., and now that Harry has left home, it is her whole universe. Her favorite show is one where a man who has lost a lot of weight runs a game show. Her dream is to some day be on his show.
Harry’s friend Tyrone is waiting outside the apartment to help him push the T.V. across town to the appliance man’s store where they sell the set and use the money to buy Heroin. The next scene shows Sara, Harry’s mother retriving the set back from the appliance man for what is most likely the hundreth time or so. Sara is what we call an “enabler”; she turns her head to whatever Harry does and makes excuses for him. From there Harry and Tyrone get high with Harry’s girlfriend Marion.
Soon we see as the addiction progresses, Harry and Tyrone begin to hatch a plan to score a large amount of Heroin so they can sell it and have their stash for free. This is a common train of thought for addicts. It is this same type of cognitive process that leads a Meth addict to setting up a home lab and cooking dope him, or herself.
Then we see Sara get a phone call from a Television studio and are informed that she has won a contest and has been selected to be a guest on her favorite T.V. show. She has a problem though, she wants to wear the red dress she wore to Harry’s graduation, but she discovers she can no longer get it zipped up as she has gained too much weight in the past few years. A neighbor suggests that she see the doctor her daughter did to lose the unwanted weight. She does and he prescribes a regiment of diet pills that she soon finds gives her enormous amounts of energy as well as helps her start to lose weight. Sara quickly becomes addicted to the pills.
Now the stage is set for all four chacters to succomb to the ravages of addiction. Harry and Tyrone soon start to make large amounts of money and Tyrone begins to see himself as a real player, while Harry and Marion begin to dream of opening up a boutique to sell clothes that Marion herself will select and design. Unfortunately such dreams are more often than not short lived. Harry visits his mother to tell her he has bought her a large screen T.V. to make up for being such a bad son, and it will be delivered in a couple of days. During the visit he notices his mother chewing her lip and talking continuously. He questions her and she tells him about the doctor who is helping her lose weight so she can fit into her red dress for her debut on television. He accuses her of becoming an addict. She tells him she really has nothing to live or look forward to anymore but this T.V. game show. He goes away with promises to see her again soon. It is a promise he won’t be able to keep.
The movie then follows each one down through the spiral of active addiction to the seemingly bottomless pit it