Review: In Dreams (movie)

In my never ending quest to see every movie ever made, Netflix recommended I watch this film released in 1999.  I should have said no and saved it for a later time. Being the intrepid sloth that I am, I decided to give this crazy, unfocused film a chance before bed.  It didn't pay off.

Annette Bening as Claire Cooper

In Dreams follows Claire Cooper, played by Annette Bening, a doting mother.  She and her husband have hit a rough patch when she finds some evidence showing he, Paul Cooper played by Aiden Quinn, being unfaithful.  Before they can resolve anything, their young daughter, Rebecca, becomes lost after a very strange but cute outdoor play of Snow White.  The girl who played the evil queen, by the way, was oddly appropriate with her crazy fit of childish rage.  It's worth watching the film for that alone!  While waiting to find her daughter, we find out Claire has visions in her dreams.  Visions that come true! Spooky!!!! These visions come directly from the man who has taken her daughter.  She learns that her daughter is not the first nor last victim of this disturbed killer.

Likes -  The only thing I really liked were the special effects.  There were not many displays of it but the transitions between being awake and being in a dream for Claire were good. The final scene were the killer, Vivian Thompson played by Robert Downer Jr., is haunted is also excellent.  Thats really about it.

Dislikes - This movie was a crazy mess of insanity.  The first half was focused on how bat shit crazy Bening could be.  She pulled off an amazing job in being absolutely ridiculous and lacking credibility.  The later half, we see RDJ mixing his confidence and calm demeanor with the musings of a maniac.  Between the two, I felt more scared of RDJ, rightfully.  Bening made me feel bad for women in general.  Her performance totally discredited her gender by acting so irrational and over the top.  Look, I get crazy and being driven beyond what you can handle, but from the very beginning Bening portrays her character as some delicate house wife who never learned to deal with anything more strenuous then not being able to go to the grocery store on time.  I felt such a portrayal of women was inappropriate for 1999. It makes no sense to me how Bening goes from zero to psychotic idiot in 10 minutes.

Also, the major plot point of why the killer can invade Claire's dreams is never really explained, except for they have the same power.  This is just lazy to me.  I can totally see there being a connection between them but there is no attempt to even try to create a psychic link. The overall plot just seemed rushed and made little sense how they got from point A to point B.  It's like they were borrowing sets from other films that were never broken down and tried to make something cohesive out of it.

Robert Downey Jr as Vivian Thompson

Overall - This was an interesting film.  I watched it because I felt the cast was really strong.  For this film though, it seems the big players simply phoned it in.  No one really delved into their character.  The audience is bludgeoned immediately with the neuroses of these poorly developed characters.  This was good to watch only for the fact it shows so many things that can go wrong.  For the purpose of entertaining, In Dreams does so by simply showing you the worst case scenario of an actor/actress not giving a shit.  In terms of a decent plot or character development, I would look elsewhere.  1.5 out of 5 stars.