Product Details

• Actors: Penelope Cruz, Gwyneth Paltrow
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: April 1, 2008
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0012GVMFI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,301 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Good Night" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Penélope Cruz, Martin Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Danny DeVito co-star in this wry look at an obsessed man who will do anything to make his passion-filled dream life a reality. Gary Sheller (Freeman) is caught in a midlife crisis: dead-end job, depressing life and a deteriorating relationship with his girlfriend Dora (Paltrow). That is, until he meets Anna (Cruz), the girl of his dreams. Able to see her only while asleep, Gary seeks out an expert on lucid dreaming techniques (DeVito) who agrees to help Gary carry on the most satisfying relationship of his life. But as Gary continues to shun reality, his waking life troubles only worsen in this illuminating dark comedy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different and Great for It, April 7, 2008

By 

Patrick (Jamison, Panama) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Good Night (DVD)

Last reviewer didn't leave much of a review. This movie is different. Know that going into and be ok with it and you'll love it. There's nothin inherently BAD about this film unless you don't enjoy films that explore unique topics (such as lucid dreaming). It's the story of a man who yearns to escape from his dull life and the lack of faith and constant criticism from his girlfriend and best friend.

Very enjoyable film, and has an ending that leaves you feeling like you just watched something with a purpose and a meaning. I don't know, maybe it's a love it/hate it kind of a movie but I definitely loved it. Martin Freeman is a really great actor!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars safely slumbering in a black padded room, April 18, 2008

By 

nonlinearize (the third coast, usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Night (DVD)

The Good Night is about a man who seeks to cultivate in his dreams the life and love he doesn't know how to achieve in reality. To my knowledge, only one other film has been made with Lucid Dreaming as a subject, the excellent 2002 philosophical trip Waking Life. Lucid dreaming is essentially the ability to "wake up" while dreaming, to become aware of the fact that one is dreaming, and even to exert some control over dream content. There are a number of techniques, developed by ancient Buddhists and modern psychologists, which can be used to induce and prolong lucid dreams. Two of the most common tricks are featured in The Good Night, but neither one is intelligently portrayed or described at any length. A more insightful presentation of lucid dreaming would have made the film more engaging for me. Instead the subject is primarily used as a plot device.

As it is, The Good Night does do a number of things well. The film is populated by believable though unlikable characters who are adept at pointing out other people's faults, but incapable of acknowledging their own. Through consistent though casual attention to detail, the film excels at portraying the nuances of day-to-day life and conversation, and is laced with irony and subtle dark comedy. The Good Night shares much of its basic thematic structure with 2006's The Science of Sleep, but without the manic whimsical melancholy of that film. While some reviewers have said they thought it boring, I found The Good Night's darkly funny character drama to be pretty engaging. And although the slow rising emotional tone had little resonance, I continue to think about the film's suggestion that perhaps before awakening, some may have to fall more deeply asleep...

For those interested, good books about lucid dreaming include Jeff Warren's The Head Trip, Namkhai Norbu's Dream Yoga, Carlos Castaneda's The Art of Dreaming, Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying edited by F.J. Varela, and a range of titles by Stephen LaBerge.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Modern Day Fairytale With a Twist, April 30, 2008

By 

Rudy Palma "The Writing Fiend" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Good Night (DVD)

Jake Paltrow's "The Good Night," new to DVD, is a modern day fairytale of sorts primed to resonate with the insomniac in all of us. Paltrow may be principally famous because of his famous parents and superstar sister, whom he casts swimmingly, but he proves with this screenwriting debut that he is the real deal when it comes to writing as well as directing. "The Good Night" is original yet familiar, enigmatic yet straightforward, dark yet comical.

British actor Martin Freeman is Gary Sheller, a disheartened has-been musician writing cheap instrumentals for commercial advertisements in New York City. He lives with his endlessly negative, poisonous girlfriend Dora, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, who only serves to discourage him further. One can sense that both are equally self-loathing, thus resigned to each others' company in lieu of the hardship of single life. Gary stagnates even further while his boss and former bandmate Paul, a sordid, self-absorbed skuzz portrayed by Simon Pegg, seems to get ahead in life with little to no effort.

His anxiety drips into his dreams, and when the gray skies part he's left with Anna, an other-worldly, breathtakingly beautiful woman played by Penelope Cruz. She is lovely, supportive and nurturing - everything that Dora is not. The only problem, however, is that she exists only in Gary's dreams, turning every night into a secret rendezvous. In effort to make sense of it all he turns to Mel, played by the fantastic Danny DeVito. A self-appointed expert on lucid dreaming techniques, he takes Gary on a field trip to a mattress warehouse and warns him to avoid sleeping pills at all costs if he wishes to continue his nightly liaisons.

What makes "The Good Night" particularly endearing is that its new-agey tendencies come across as not only believable but fully relatable. Jake Paltrow transforms New York City into an extension of Gary's dream state, and the results never fail to take unexpected, engaging directions. Freeman makes his protagonist the consummate burned-out everyman seeking a new lease on life, but the script goes much deeper than that. Cruz and Paltrow are outstanding, yet DeVito's presence alone makes the film worth a rental.

Entertaining from the first frame to the last, "The Good Night" is leaps and bounds above standard cookie-cutter fare. With a killer script and a formidable cast that make it all look deceivingly easy, the film charms and amuses in equally generous doses.

It may be a sleeper, but it's no snoozer.