The Science of Sleep

'Science can be sleepy'

No one can ever say now that Michel Gondry has no imagination. This man brought us Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Human Nature, both of which were written by Charlie Kaufman. He has directed numerous music videos and commercials and shorts and has pioneered a lot of techniques along the way. His latest outing, The Science of Sleep deals with dreams and the imagination as much of his previous work has, but the biggest difference is that this time, he's the writer.

The Science of Sleep is fairly hard to decipher what is going on, but it is essentially a story of romance and one man and one woman trying to figure the other out while falling in love. All of this of course while the main male character seems to be slowly going crazy and having an especially hard time differentiating his dreams from reality. Also embroiled into the whole mess is Michel Gondry's explanation of sleep and dreams. Quite a heady topic? Similar to the great Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gondry is not afraid to turn his scenes into dream sequences that intermix with the reality of the film in interesting and mind bending ways. The problem is that unlike the aforementioned film, the story of The Science of Sleep is not grounded enough in a stable reality to allow most people to piece the story back together in any sort of accuracy. Character decisions and changes in mood are dictated in the dreams and sometimes vice versa until the dream world becomes reality and indistinguishable, which in a society used to reality or absurdity, to mix the two makes the story incredibly hard to follow. Of course, it does make the entire film feel like an incredibly long dream. The problem is that with any film in which the story is hard to follow, the film feels infinitely longer which translates to boring. People tend to go to movies to see stories unfold in front of their eyes and unlike most of Europe and other countries, America does not have a rich history of succesful experimental films. I don't want to call the movie boring because it shouldn't be due to the incredible blending of animation and illusions and reality. But I did find myself surfing the internet at times and not really giving a crap about the characters for the most part. Michel Gondry wrote the film based on his own dreams and it is nice to see how the dreams and reality influence each other and how he was able to craft a dream aesthetic and structure for the film, the problem is that it feels like the story rambles and in doing so can easily lose the viewer. Besides that flaw, the film is magnificent with interesting visuals and symbols on screen throughout. The actors do a terrific job and the story itself is amusing to those who can keep up with it. I think as a freshman feature writing effort on Michel Gondry's part, not bad. And I look forward to his next big thing.

The two main actors are Gael Garcia Bernal as Stephane Miroux, a childish young man trying to find a job that lets him use and manipulate his imagination to his hearts content, and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Stephanie, which the names should tell you something. Garcia Bernal proves himself again in such a scatterbrained movie by navigating skillfully through all of the twists and turns to create a movie that can be followed if watched closely enough. It is also very amusing how his ability to speak French is mocked in fun and so a lot of times the movie changes between Spanish, French, and English. Charlotte Gainsbourg does an excllent job of coming off as the elite french woman who is interested in more of the punk scene. The sentiments of both characters are very odd and unrelatable to me, but I know several people like them all of whom are artists. Although perhaps the most amusing cast members are the ones who work with Stephane at his boring calendar job. Their little quips and interactions with Stephane and each other are hilarious and keep absurd and awkward scenes alive and laughable. Excellent job by the cast at conveying characters and figments in such a manner as to be amusing no matter which realm they are in.

Conclusion:
The film has a wonderful child-like aesthetic and joy inherent in the making of it that rejoices in the simplicity of making something. It pokes fun at itself and it is highly enjoyable. The problem as already mentioned is the story and how it is hard to find a basis for it when the basis is constantly changing in a blurrd world of absurdity and non-fiction. The cast is great and the editing and animation are top notch for such an interesting experimental piece that only a French man could have concocted. If you feel yourself get sleepy after all of the crazy imagery seems to blast by in a whirl, do what I did, grab a coke, pause, rewind, and try to understand and if not that, enjoy.

4.1 out of 5

Wannabe

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

‘Eternal Sunshine’ Illuminates Screens

Charlie Kaufman has finally gotten it right. Kaufman, the man who wrote the screenplays of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, has once again written an incredible movie. In truth, it is probably his best film to date. Kaufman’s sense of writing involves interesting stream-of-consciousness voiceovers and many psychological character driven scenes. His characters are always lovingly created with a serious humor to them that makes them fun to watch. In the past, Being John Malkovich won appraise and was nominated for several Oscars as was Adaptation. However, the problem with Kaufman’s writing was that it was too intellectual for most audiences, including the Academy. The intelligence of his prior movies could easily keep the audience from enjoying it due to the constant change of pace and rhythm as seen in Adaptation, or the references and allusions in Being John Malkovich. His recent endeavor, known as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, reveals itself to be the perfect balance of intellect and entertainment. The Academy will have no cause to deny Kaufman’s current masterpiece.

Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind acts as a reminder to everyone that ignorance is not blissfulness. Since the movie is about a couple of lovers who want to forget each other but can not, it is much more watchable for an audience. Although the first 20-30 minutes or so are hard to follow at first due to scenes that do not seem to intertwine, the movie quickly remedies itself. At the end, in denouement style, the beginning of the movie is explained and all is revealed by showing the beginning in context of the movie’s time frame. So do not worry that you will not understand at first, because it does get much better.

Besides the story being amazing, the acting is also remarkable. At first the cast list seems fairly hokey, as if the movie was another teen comedy of some sort. Yet, the movie takes itself quite seriously, in style and acting. Jim Carrey plays Joel Barrish, the young man who realizes that his long-standing girlfriend has taken a procedure to forget him and he decides he wants one too. Carrey plays the role as a nervous quiet man and rarely ever uses any of his style of comedy. Instead of playing to the comedy that is inherent in the movie, Carrey acts his character and remains Joel Barrish. It is a delightful breathe of fresh air for viewers and his best job in a movie. His co-star, Kate Winslet, is also spectacular. Her job of playing Clementine, the impulsive and daringly neurotic love interest is touching to the soul. Kate Winslet’s performance of the multi-color haired woman is perfect. Together, Winslet and Carrey seem so real and life-like in their interactions, that they are completely believable.

Other cast members include Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson. In many movies, the main characters have to carry the story. Not true though for this one. Kirsten Dunst does a good job and does not come off as just another pretty actress of Hollywood. Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo, and Elijah Wood all score a touchdown. Despite the fact that Wood’s character as well as Wilkinson’s is almost flat, they are still wonderful to see. All in all, the movie is a soon to be classic and should be watched for this year’s Oscars. Lastly, for all those in love with Elijah Wood, he is sadly not given enough screen time to make it worth your while to ogle him. 4.5 out of 5

Wannabe