An insomniac student signs up for a sleep study, only to find her dreams mean more than she knew ...
Good performances in a story that reaches to another dimension in the exploration of character. The dreamscapes are macabre and well shot, and while the pace is patchy there is a moment of deep fear as the threat is fully revealed. The score is also interesting, except for ten minutes around the middle point when it seems to tread water just as the tension should be piled on.
A couple of points where credulity is stretched, but by the end I found myself having to rethink them because of the change in the logic of the story telling. There is a key to this, but I haven't figured out how far back the crucial change occurred. The director points to a Jungian framework, with captions naming four aspects of the psyche - the persona, anima and animus, the shadow, and the self. At the start we encounter the shadow, which is clearly part of a dream, but looking back it's unclear whether we touch base with reality at all - and so the heroine's odd domestic circumstances are never explained. There are a few more clues, like the change of eye colour, the disappearance of the other female volunteer, the simultaneity of the dreams, and some deep point about having sex with one's own opposite, but I'd have to watch more closely to piece it together.
The danger with hanging a story from a framework is that you lose touch with the character and drama. This does a good job, but I'd really have to trust the director's skill to commit to rewatching.
Overall: Ambitious, but I wasn't sure what it was offering me.
Good performances in a story that reaches to another dimension in the exploration of character. The dreamscapes are macabre and well shot, and while the pace is patchy there is a moment of deep fear as the threat is fully revealed. The score is also interesting, except for ten minutes around the middle point when it seems to tread water just as the tension should be piled on.
A couple of points where credulity is stretched, but by the end I found myself having to rethink them because of the change in the logic of the story telling. There is a key to this, but I haven't figured out how far back the crucial change occurred. The director points to a Jungian framework, with captions naming four aspects of the psyche - the persona, anima and animus, the shadow, and the self. At the start we encounter the shadow, which is clearly part of a dream, but looking back it's unclear whether we touch base with reality at all - and so the heroine's odd domestic circumstances are never explained. There are a few more clues, like the change of eye colour, the disappearance of the other female volunteer, the simultaneity of the dreams, and some deep point about having sex with one's own opposite, but I'd have to watch more closely to piece it together.
The danger with hanging a story from a framework is that you lose touch with the character and drama. This does a good job, but I'd really have to trust the director's skill to commit to rewatching.
Overall: Ambitious, but I wasn't sure what it was offering me.