The Science of Sleep
Review by Josh Hurst | posted 9/22/2006
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The Science of Sleep
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MPAA rating: R
(for language, some sexual content, and nudity)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Theater release:
September 22, 2006
by Warner Independent
Directed by: Michel Gondry
Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal (Stephane), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Stephanie), Alain Chabot (Guy), Emma de Caunes (Zoe), Miou-Miou (Christine), Aurelia Petit (Martine), Sacha Bourdo (Serge)
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Michel Gondry is the Willy Wonka of cinema. He loves bright colors, punchdrunk whimsy, and, to cop a phrase, pure imagination. He's probably a madman, and that's what makes him so charming. You can't help but laugh at the sheer, giddy joy of his storytelling, even if the laughter is, occasionally, of the nervous variety. But make no mistake—Gondry isn't a candyman. His movies are delicious and delightful, and they'll leave you with a heck of a sugar rush, but their nutritional value is much higher than that of an Everlasting Gobstopper. Gondry's films can pack a surprising emotional wallop, even when they don't necessarily make logical sense.
Gael Garcia Bernal as Stephane
And, as with Wonka, Gondry has an imagination so infectiously childlike and enthusiastic that his art is great in spite of its imperfections—in fact, one is inclined to say that the blemishes just make his movies all the more charming. That's certainly the case with The Science of Sleep, a movie that flaunts Gondry's greatest weakness and dazzles in spite or because of it. Simply put, the man isn't a great screenwriter; he's got too many big ideas and not enough focus or sense of purpose. In the past he's brought in hired pens like Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Human Nature) to give his flights of fantasy some basic structure, but in Sleep he goes it alone. Thus, any sense of narrative focus is derailed after half an hour, but don't let that bother you—the fun just keeps flying by, deliriously inventive, full of exuberant whimsy and ramshackle energy.
Stephane is all ears while listening to Stephanie
One almost wonders if the film is some kind of abstract autobiography. Gael Garcia Bernal plays a guy named Stephane, but he really seems to be playing Gondry himself—a man immersed in a world of dreams and fancies, not always sure of what's real and what's just in his head. Stephane is a timid artist who lives with his mother and works a boring, unfulfilling job in Paris, which gives his mind ample opportunity to wander and concoct all manner of strange romances. He develops a crush on his neighbor Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). And then … well, things get a little tricky. Gondry's film drifts freely between the real world and the dream world, with the distinction growing blurrier and blurrier. Thus, the film becomes less about plot and more about the hallucinatory images and trippy metaphysics.
That doesn't mean that the film is plotless; it just means that the real treasures here are in the witty observational humor, the quirky character interactions, and Gondry's fixation on messing with our perceptions of what's real. The film is riotously funny, but it can also be thought-provoking, if you choose to engage its wonderful weirdness on an intellectual level. Gondry creates some fascinating and clever parallels between the real and the dream, showing how the happenings in Stephane's daily life influence his imagination, showing up in mutated forms while he's sleeping. The film even raises some interesting questions about the nature of dreams, asking us to consider in what ways they can help us and in what ways they can lead to trouble; Stephane's infatuation with the dream world makes him a creative and romantic individual, to be sure, but at what cost?
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