Dream Scenario

For months now, I’ve been looking forward to this movie. I’ve been avoiding the marketing as much as I could, as knowing its premise and star were enough. Distribution being handled by A24 was a nice plus. It’s just the kind of odd, quiet idea which could go in a million different ways that tends to be my jam.

Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) is a professor of evolutionary biology. All of a sudden, people are staring at him wherever he goes, and occasionally insist they know him. Slowly, starting with his ex-girlfriend Claire (Marnie McPhail) who calls him out of the blue, they tell him of their dreams, all of which include him. Not involve him, mind you: in every single instance, he’s just there, waving or walking by or whatnot, barely acknowledging what’s happening around him, regardless of how intense it is. In the interest of parlaying it into the influence to further his career, he speaks to some local media, turning him into a minor celebrity. Which is where the movie really begins.

See, Paul is a schlubby loser. He never does anything with the ideas he cultivates, such as his Ph.D. thesis or his book idea. Instead, he whines about others moving forward or getting preferential treatment, when really it’s just that he refuses to take the initiative. He’s a sad sack, who’s life is pretty comfortable. But he’d love to stand out from the crowd rather than live a life of quiet desperation.

Director Borgli is interested in what happens when you take a character like that and thrust him into the limelight by no fault of his own. We’re not informed why the dreams start happening, or even really when: the first scene of the movie is a dream had by his youngest daughter Sophie (Lily Bird) which follows the format which will later become so familiar. So it’s implied that maybe this has been happening for a bit, and is only brought to light when it hits Claire. He has no control over it, he’s done no work, and so he could not be more delighted to soak up the attention. Paul has become a celebrity for no reason, not even nepotism.

What plays out is a bit of a black comedy, with no one really sure how to feel about it, least of all his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson). The majority seem enamored, but there are dark sides, such as those who see it as a violation of privacy and how he can’t go anywhere without someone recognizing him. It’s the experience of being a minor celebrity, the experience of losing your privacy while not being well-known or powerful enough to attain the security that can offset such a lifestyle. And even more so once things take a turn which cause everyone to instantly want him gone. But since no one’s controlling it, he literally cannot leave them alone, breeding resentment and anger. All of which are intended to highlight the downsides of being popular.

Thing is, the analogy is fairly obvious and the topic well trodden, so it doesn’t have a ton of depth. There aren’t any larger meanings, just some well executed connections drawn throughout the piece. There’s commentary on the cottage industry around new celebrity, advertising, and the indifference of the world to your desires once you’re any sort of public figure. All of which are fine, but we spend a good deal of time dwelling on them, which gets a bit exhausting when they’re not presented or discussed in the most creative way.

Cage’s performance is quite good, even if it fails to reach the heights of Pig from a few years ago. He’s clearly doing A Thing here, what with his baldness and beer gut and slightly squeaky voice. The physical performance of Paul helps to further characterize him, and makes for an excellent image when he dons the David Byrne oversized suit (trust me, it makes sense in context).

So this was a disappointment. I had no particular expectations or thoughts for where the story should go, it’s just that in the end, I’m not sure it really ended up anywhere. It was enjoyable enough, just a little lighter on substance than I’d been hoping for. In any case, I’m never going to regret spending my time on a movie like this: strange, small, indie dramas. Especially when I can use them to signal to the studios that despite what they may think, people do watch movies like this in the theater. Because there’s something special about gazing up at a huge screen to watch Nic Cage casually walk through a scene and wave at someone pleasantly, despite them hiding behind a tree from an unseen attacker.