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Recently, I read a book about dreams - supposedly, dreams are
the vehicle your subconscious uses to tell you things. So if
you dream about dogs, you feel that someone is being disloyal
to you. If you dream about butterflies, you feel happy and prosperous.
If you dream about crazed psycho killers coming after you -
to the point that you slit your own wrists- you belong in the
loony bin.
Actually, that last example didn't come out of a book - I simply
came to that assumption while watching "In Dreams", in which
Annette Benning stars as Claire Cooper, a woman who has some
serious nightmares. In her precognitive dreams, she sees psycho
killer Vivian Thompson (Robert Downey Jr.) murdering children
- including her own daughter. (Why is it that Vivian is the
name stuck on all characters of less than honorable reputation?
First, Julia Roberts played a hooker named Vivian in "Pretty
Woman"; now Robert Downey Jr. is a killer named Vivian. How
could my parents have done this to me?) Eventually, she does
indeed end up in the funny farm - although her dreams of deadly
premonitions are not only real, but extremely accurate.
The best way to describe "In Dreams" would be to say that it's
a very weird movie. In some ways, it is not particularly well
- scripted - some of the scenes are terribly overdone. On the
other hand, it is fast paced and was strangely captivating,
for a movie that was so loosely plotted. The acting was terrific,
and if nothing else, "In Dreams" was certainly intense. It starts
out subtly spooky, a wonderful way to build suspense in films,
but then it rapidly segues into a downward spiral of blood,
gore, and deep psychological probing. As I was waiting in the
insufferably long bathroom line after seeing "In Dreams", I
heard a woman remark that the movie was "a wild ride". Not a
bad way of putting it.
My rating: 3 stars
Rating : R (for violence/terror and language)
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