Based on the novel Doll's Eyes by Bari Wood, In Dreams centers on beleaguered suburban housewife Annette Bening who develops a strange psychic connection with a kidnapper/murderer stalking the area. She does not understand why this has happened and cannot initially get the investigating detective Paul Guilfoyle to take her seriously. While saying goodbye to her pilot husband Aidan Quinn at their daughter's school play, their daughter is kidnapped and murdered. The bereft, grief-stricken Bening tries to take her own life, but lives to be bandied back and forth between one unsympathetic psychiatrist after another, while the killer uses the psychic link to mentally torture her, until the whole thing comes to a climactic confrontation.
The film opens with a disturbingly eerie segment documenting the "drowning" of a small town to make way for a reservoir and then moves to the future where body recovery divers make their way through the submerged ghost town to search for one of the victims. The sequence is chilling and amped up more by Elliot Goldenthal's creepy soundtrack. The connection with the town will become clearer as the film progresses. Director Neil Jordan provides an atmosphere of creeping dread that enshrouds everything and there is a distinct uncertainty as to where the film will go next or how everything will turn out.
Despite the first-rate cast and production team, almost no one saw or remembers this film, which is quite a shame considering how original and disturbing it is. It is quite the underrated gem.
While Robert Downey Jr.'s is memorable as the killer, making a late entry in the film as he previously remains in shadow or seen in quick bits, the film belongs to Bening. I find Bening an often overrated actress. She gets accolades for broad uneven performances in Oscar fodder films like American Beauty, but then gets overlooked for more nuanced work here. She takes you on a manic ride from the character's initial stability through her unbearable grief into her teetering on the edge of madness before unearthing a hidden strength that even she failed to imagine she possesses. Bening makes the grief of a mother losing her child and the subsequent mental breakdown palpable. There were times where I truly believed that the actress was losing her mind on camera, so pitch perfect is she here. She is also incredibly sympathetic.
Between Bening's astounding lead performance, the surreal eerie visuals, the unpredictable storyline and Jordan's able direction, which turns everything topsy turvy and rarely gives us breathing room, this is a thriller that is more than ripe for rediscovery.
The film opens with a disturbingly eerie segment documenting the "drowning" of a small town to make way for a reservoir and then moves to the future where body recovery divers make their way through the submerged ghost town to search for one of the victims. The sequence is chilling and amped up more by Elliot Goldenthal's creepy soundtrack. The connection with the town will become clearer as the film progresses. Director Neil Jordan provides an atmosphere of creeping dread that enshrouds everything and there is a distinct uncertainty as to where the film will go next or how everything will turn out.
Despite the first-rate cast and production team, almost no one saw or remembers this film, which is quite a shame considering how original and disturbing it is. It is quite the underrated gem.
While Robert Downey Jr.'s is memorable as the killer, making a late entry in the film as he previously remains in shadow or seen in quick bits, the film belongs to Bening. I find Bening an often overrated actress. She gets accolades for broad uneven performances in Oscar fodder films like American Beauty, but then gets overlooked for more nuanced work here. She takes you on a manic ride from the character's initial stability through her unbearable grief into her teetering on the edge of madness before unearthing a hidden strength that even she failed to imagine she possesses. Bening makes the grief of a mother losing her child and the subsequent mental breakdown palpable. There were times where I truly believed that the actress was losing her mind on camera, so pitch perfect is she here. She is also incredibly sympathetic.
Between Bening's astounding lead performance, the surreal eerie visuals, the unpredictable storyline and Jordan's able direction, which turns everything topsy turvy and rarely gives us breathing room, this is a thriller that is more than ripe for rediscovery.