Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Film Review: The Science of Sleep

The other movie I watched on the weekend was The Science of Sleep, a quirky little movie by Michel Gondry who is no stranger to quirky (see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

Like Hollywoodland, this film starts off well, mostly due to some interesting performances, good direction and a compelling story. But, much like Hollywoodland, it goes a little off the rails about halfway through and the ending is, well, less than satisfying. While Hollywoodland almost needed to end ambiguously because of the incomplete nature of the investigation into George Reeves' death, there's no real excuse for the somewhat ham-fisted ending to this one. The final shots literally could have been plopped at any point in the movie; I wish that Gondry had spent as much time working out the "real life" story as he did the dream elements. By the end, I had no idea what Stephanie's motivations were. Unbelievably, Stephane made more sense than she did.

Neverthless, this is a really charming story with great visuals and a neat concept. Definitely worth watching, if only for the quirkiness.

Thumbs up.

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