The Science of Sleep Reviewed by Michelle Reindal Starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat and Miou-Miou Directed by Michel Gondry    An eruption of languages, colors, and oddities, The Science of Sleep is mildly amusing, but mostly just a cluttered mess that lacks any kind of connective tissue. Michel Gondry’s follow-up to 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind sincerely pales in comparison, and you have to wonder if the absence of Charlie Kaufman at the writing helm is at fault. Alone, Gondry’s imagination feels like a hostile takeover, leading to an insanely disjointed storyline and major quirkiness overkill.Stéphane Miroux (Gael García Bernal) is a perplexed young man who can’t seem to decipher between dreamland and reality. After moving to Paris to be with his widowed mother, Stéphane lands a disdainful job making promotional calendars, when what he really wants to do is invent. And by invent we’re talking: a wire-growing thingamabob; a time-machine; and I’m still too confused to know what the hell else he “invented” in his wild fantasy/reality or both. He then plays a tiresome cat and mouse game with his creative next door neighbor, Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who doesn’t want anything to do with him in reality – but makes out with him on ski slopes made of cloth, rides ponies, and creates with him, in his sad little delusions. The theme is easy enough to understand. When the real world gets tough, sometimes you have to escape into your own sublime fantasy world to get through it. The theme and plot could have been tied together to weave an endearingly romantic tale, but instead, Gondry spent too much time in the very bizarre (and not in the artsy way) land of nod. Besides, my dreams seem so incredibly dull since I’ve seen this movie. Not cool. |
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