IN DREAMS

US, 1999, 96 minutes, Colour.
Annette Bening, Aidan Quinn, Robert Downey Jnr, Stephen Rea, Paul Guilfoyle, Denis Boutsikaris.
Directed by Neil Jordan.

In Dreams is an unusual choice for writer-director Neil Jordan. He began his career in Ireland with such films as Angel and then moved to the surreal fairytale thriller, The Company of Wolves (with which this film has a relationship in its use of fairy tales and fantasy). Achieving success with Mona Lisa, he made some films in the United States but returned to Ireland with The Miracle. His international success came with The Crying Game, Interview With The Vampire, Michael Collins. He also made The End of the Affair and The Good Thief. His career has been quite versatile as he is also a novel writer.

This film is a story about psychics. Annette Bening has dreams which she eventually realises foretell the future and that she is being possessed by another dreamer. The other dreamer is a young boy who almost drowned when a town was covered with water for the making of a dam in the 1960s. Her own daughter is killed and she has a mental breakdown. Her desperate husband is played by Aidan Quinn. Stephen Rea is the psychiatrist. Denis Boutsikaris is the attending doctor and Paul Guilfoyle the head of detectives. In the last half hour, Robert Downey Jnr appears as the alternate dreamer, a traumatised young boy who has grown into a homicidal man.

The dreams are visualised quite strikingly, and serve as eerie prophecies of what is to come. The dreams are mainly those of Annette Bening but, towards the end, there are the dreams from Robert Downey Jnr. The film is quite pessimistic in that the little girl is killed early in the film, the husband is also murdered and Annette Bening does not survive. However, the glimmer of hope is in her final dream as she dies, being reunited with her daughter. The retribution for the killer is in his being sentenced to life in prison. He says he can life with this - however, he is tormented by grisly and bloody dreams. It is his penance and possibility for atonement.

The film is interesting in its exploration of the nature of dreams, of psychic interdependence of characters with particular gifts, in its portrait of madness and the desperation of those who have to life with people experiencing such psychic madness.

1. The impact of the film? As a human drama, its study of relationships and family, its picture of a disintegrating personality? Its picture of dreams, psychic interdependence?

2. The title, its meaning, Claire's dreams, Vivian's dreams? The truth as told in dreams?

3. The Massachusetts setting, the town, the dam, the ruined hotel? The underwater photography, the opening credits and the divers searching the submerged town, with an amount of religious icons? The homes, the mental institution, the scrubbed cleanliness of its wards, the ugliness and decrepitude of the room in which Claire was put and found to be Vivian's room? The musical score, songs - especially "Sitting Under the Apple Tree"?

4. The nature of Claire's dreams, the search for the body, the little girl being taken into the woods? Her dream about her own daughter? The realisation that the dreams were prophecy? Her own torment, the dream about her husband's death? Her dream about her own death? Her dreams about Vivian, the struggles with him? Vivian and his dreams, Claire appearing in his dreams? The final grisly and bloodthirsty dreams?

5. Claire, the background of the fairy tales and her illustration of Grimms' fairy tales? The plot and the characters to be interpreted within this context of Grimm's fairy tales? This being important for not interpreting the film as realistic drama? The importance of the play, Rebecca's performance, her voice in the mirror, Snow White? Rebecca as being the fairest of them all? Claire as the fairest of them all? Use of symbols and myths, the pet dog, the destructive dog killing Paul? The verses, Vivian's poem about his father? American myths and old myths?

6. Claire, love for her daughter, her work? Her relationship with Paul? His being a pilot, his irregular appearances? Her suspicions of his relationship with the girl in Australia? Her hesitance in lovemaking, the dreams disturbing her sleep, overcoming her in her interactions with Paul? Going to the play, her delight with her daughter, Rebecca's disappearance, the desperation of the search? Her body being found, her grief, the dreams taking over and not giving her time for bereavement?

7. Paul, the pilot, coming home irregularly, the gift for Rebecca, his love for Claire, his frustration in their lovemaking, wariness of her psychic abilities, her dreams? His going to the detective, telling the story, the detective mocking him because the body had been found?

8. Paul, his return to find Claire distraught, her breakdown, her going to the hospital, driving the car off the bridge? Her surviving, the doctor and his attention the psychiatrist and the possibility of interpreting the dreams? Her return home, the increase of the dreams? Mary helping out, going to the store, Claire and her dreams, her upstairs studio, its destruction? Her slitting her wrists? Her being interned in the mental institution, her anger, treatment of the staff? Her explaining her dreams and fears to the doctor? Warning him about the hotel and Paul's death? His not paying attention to her? The detective and his concern, his visit to the house, the disappearance of the dog? Her being in the hospital, in the room, her discovery of the poems on the wall, realising that it was Vivian's room? Her following his journey, into the vent and the duct, dressed as the nurse and realising that he had murdered the nurse, her own getting out of the hospital, getting the car, the attraction of the driver, pulling the gun? The parallels with Vivian leaving the hospital and his killing the driver? Her going to his house?

9. In Vivian's house, discovering Ruby, Ruby as being part of her dream? Red being a significant colour, her name for Vivian before she knew it? Vivian and his bringing her into the house, with Ruby, tying her up?

10. Vivian, the scenes of him as a little boy, chained, the poem, his becoming free, being rescued on the steeple, in the hospital? The doctor reading his file? The shock treatment, the water treatment? His madness, growing up, his escape from the hospital? His resentment towards his father? Memories of his mother and her cruelty? Making Claire be the mother and the family with Ruby? Dressing her in the red dress?

11. Claire and her helping Ruby to escape, the police following the clues and the car, rescuing Ruby? The siege of the house? Claire and her posing as Vivian's mother, reprimanding him, his reactions? Her jumping into the vat of apples, escaping, the pursuit? The talk, her breaking free, the attempt to shoot Vivian? Their both falling into the water, her death and the images of her daughter? Vivian being rescued?

12. The role of the psychiatrist, the need for sensitivity and intuition? His compassionate listening to Claire, not believing that what she said was real, especially about Paul's death? The grisly discovery? His looking at the file, apologising to her?

13. The detective, his scepticism, his support, his final help? The role of the police?

14. Vivian, in court, guilty, pronounced insane, life imprisonment? His satisfaction, in his cell, the vividness of the dreams, destructive, Claire's appearance, his dreaming of her reaching through the wall to kill him? The final image of Vivian looking out through the bars - and the prospect of his life?

15. An eerie blend of realism and fantasy, the supernatural, the psychic, dreams, fantasy and reality?