Somehow, in that great way that the film industry so often does, this little movie got overlooked by some marketing fool who decided to instead grant a cinema release to Tomb Raider 2. Which, while it meant I got to ogle a 20-foot high image of Angelina in a bikini, also meant I had to take a chance on an unknown straight to video release in order to get a real movie.
Jeff Daniels brilliantly plays a university lecturer who, during an ongoing bout of insomnia, becomes increasingly worried when his wife fails to come home from work. Everyone seems to want to go out of their way to help him in his dilemma, with support from the local police, his wife's friends, a counsellor...all of whom seem to be on medication. As he begins to lose track of events, time and people, his most pressing concern seems to be the pipes in his house, which have blocked the bath, toilet and are leaking in every room.
The story only once leaves his house, with the only narrative drive coming from the various visitors he receives at all hours. The other place we get to see is, essentially, the inside of his own head as a combination of fatigue, emotional stress and sleeping pills start to send him a little crazy. What develops is a waking dream scenario, as in such gems as Perfect Blue, Jacob's Ladder or Mulholland Dr. Everyone in the cast plays their part in establishing a slightly surreal, absurd tone to each conversation and event, leaving the audience as bemused as the lead character as to what exactly is going on. And even when the movie comes to it's unexpected finish you're still not entirely sure of what was real and what was imagined, just that movies like this should get treated with some respect and granted a proper release. |
