Customer Reviews

Dream Lover [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This movie deals with the very real issue of what happens to a person who has had to kill in self defense(especially when it is not clear that it was necessary.) Kristy McNichol's performance in this film is very moving, and easily one of her best. The film is a little difficult to follow at certain times and is definitely out of the box in some ways but is certainly worth watching, and a staple for any Kristy McNichol fan.

It's a rare occasion when a film that is panned unmercifully, by critics and audiences, truly deserves a second chance. "Dream Lover" is such a film.
Instantly dismissed as a failure upon it's release, this film has been lurking in the forgotten zone, patiently awaiting its re-discovery by a future audience that enjoys surreal and creepy films. Time has indeed been very, very kind to this film. Kristy McNichol was perfectly cast in the lead role, even though it may not have seemed so during her "teen-queen" heydey. Her fans, and the critics, simply weren't ready to accept a mature Kristy, in a very mature role, and this is by far her most mature and challenging effort.
This in not a superb film, per say, and it does in fact have flaws, but the strong selling point here is the absolute, high-level creepiness and the amazing dream-like atmosphere that was so brilliantly captured. The director obviously wanted to confuse the viewers with the "is she dreaming, or is it real" factor, and he succeeded in spades without ever resorting to boring cliches. This is truly a very intriguing and original story, and perhaps its full potential wasn't completely realized, but it comes awfully close. Definitely close enough to entertain and satisfy fans of this particular type of thriller.
This is one of those films where the less said about it, the better. Hopefully, my general praise will encourage viewers to give it a chance. I believe this film could become a much delayed and very deserving sleeper.

Enjoyed the movie Dream Lover. It was very suspensful. I didn't know what to expect next. I know one thing, they don't make good movies like this anymore.

This "Dream Lover" (not to be confused with the 90's James Spader/Madchen Amick film of the same title) is a stinker. It was the kind of lazily written film in which they depict how crazy the psycho-killer guy is by showing him lifting weights, cos, you know, the scriptwriter saw "Taxi Driver". It did the same thing for Kristy McNichol's career that "Fresh Horses" did for that of Molly Ringwald.

This Alan J Pakula directed attempt at horror is probably best known as the film that sunk Kristy McNichol's film career. Perhaps McNichol was swayed to take the advice of Pakula after his previous title led Meryl Streep to a Best Actress Oscar, but his idea of extending McNichol's acting range reads more as a total misappreciation of her appeal. The list of inexplicables begin with making McNichol practically mute as a flutist with a controlling father. Her victim pose earns her an assault after she disobeys daddy, and then recurring nightmares triggered by the trauma. This leads her to Ben Masters and a sleep research centre, who teaches her recounting procedures to control her dreams. McNichol has the kind of dreams I've never had - where she can see herself - and about the laugh in the entire film (apart from McNichol in Daddy's little girl outfits, and her faux period look in a George Seurat painting come to life) is Pakula's repeating of the stages of her dream. Being an experimental research centre, of course Masters' initial success with McNichol soon turns to the unexpected. It is with the progressive worsening of McNichol's nightmares that all logic leaves the screenplay by Jon Boorstin. We're told McNichol is a rare kind of dreamer who isn't muscle paralyzed - she moves as if awake. But then Masters has to give her an injection to produce this effect. Then we learn there is a second injection to reverse the first one. Soon McNichol is dreaming of Masters and not flatteringly, and his scientific hunger makes him unwilling to wake her up during a particularly gratuitous encounter. The climax of McNichol run amok as if Frankenstein's monster crossed with Freud leads to the inevitable confrontation with daddy, with DOP Sven Nykvist confusing us with different tints to suggest McNichol's differing conscious states. And the final scene is pure lunacy, culminating in the worst cheat shot I can recall in a while. The transition of child actors into mature roles is tough. Jodie Foster survived with her share of bruises, but poor McNichol ended up in TV's Empty Nest after her encounter with actor's director Pakula. Perhaps both of them thought they could do another Klute, without realising that Jane Fonda rescued Pakula in that one.