In Dreams, Neil Jordan's new 'Gothic' Thriller, opened Stateside on the 15th of January, in a week-end packed with stiff competition.
Varsity Blues, a comedy drama directed by Brian Robbins and starring a cast of virtual unknowns (with the exception of the magnificent Jon Voight), blew the competition away by taking in $17.6 million, though admittedly it opened in a staggering 2,121 theatres and has as its subject matter American football. Alright you guys !!
At First Sight, a romantic comedy from Irvin Winkler starring Mira Sorvino and Val Kilmer and penned by Oliver Sachs, who brought us Awakenings, opened in 1,814 cinemas and brought in $8.5 million, while Virus, producer Gale Anne Hurd's 'Alien meets Titanic' thriller, directed by John Bruno and starring scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and William Baldwin, opened in 2,018 theatres but only took $6.1 million. Add to this all round competitive field the fact that Terence 'Badlands' Malick's long awaited third feature, The Thin Red Line, though out for the last three weeks on a limited release, finally went nationwide and one wonders why the hell Dreamworks chose January 15th to premiere…
But premiere they did, opening in a middling 1,670 cinemas throughout North America and taking in $4.6 million., a figure that will leave the producers hoping for good word of mouth…
The premise of In Dreams hardly smacks of originality. Derived from the novel "Doll Eyes" by Bari Wood, Bening plays Claire Cooper, an author and illustrator of children's books, living a pleasant upper-middle class American existence with hubbie Paul (Aidan Quinn) and her daughter Rebecca (Katie Sagona), pleasant that is until she begins to believe that her dreams are being invaded by a serial killer (Robert Downey Jnr.) sending her visions of future murders…
Stephen Rea is in there of course, playing Claire's psychiatrist, and one find's it hard to imagine material more suitable for Jordan; Claire's fairy-tales providing ample opportunity for imagery (The Company of Wolves), dream sequences blurring the distinctions between reality and fantasy (The Butcher Boy), and a central character treading the fine line between sanity and insanity.
So what did the critics make of it……
Andy Seiler, film critic for US Today, singled out Bening's performance as 'terrific', but wrote the film off as 'hokum' and slated Downey's performance as the serial killer.
Janet Maslin, reviewing in The New York Times, was equally enthusiastic about Bening, but also described Downey as 'terrific' (critics, huh ?). She found the story 'groaningly far-fetched', but took time out to praise Jordan's 'lush, insinuating visuals'.
Writing in Box Office, Melissa Morrison described 'a "B-movie trifle" wrapped in superb production values', and was the only critic I came across who disliked Bening's 'hysterical' portrayal of Claire, while Jack Mathews in the L.A.Times savaged it as "direct-to-video stuff",'full of contrivance, cliches, and, with the exception of Bening's "courageous" turn, one-note performances'.
And perhaps most damaging of all, review guru Roger Ebert slated it as the "silliest" thriller in ages, bogged down by too much plot and a ludicrous story where the protagonist is "endangered by apples."
I dunno, sounds intriguing to me….
There's no European opening date confirmed as yet, though I'd imagine we're looking at a May/June release before you can make your own minds up…
Nicky Fennell 21/1/99
