Dream Scenario

It takes great skill on the part of a director to get the best out of Nicolas Cage. Give the eccentric actor too much space and he often completely takes over a film (with hilarious but somewhat mixed results), and lock him in with a script that's too tight and he withers away like a majestic animal in an under-budgeted zoo. Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog and David Lynch are some of the directors who have succeeded in this difficult balancing act, and now Norwegian Kristoffer Borgli joins the list. Not only that, but in his international debut, Dream Scenario, the director manages to deliver a smart film with a lot on its mind.

The hilarious comedy showcases one of the more underrated aspects of Nicolas Cage - his ability to play completely and utterly pathetic. His character Paul Mathews is a near-bald social biology lecturer, and with his lisping voice, hunched posture and highly questionable dress sense, Cage manages to almost personify a midlife crisis. Paul wants to write a book that will truly establish him in his field of research, but has never sat down to type, and his character - or lack thereof - is illustrated several times in the film's opening, such as when he tries to extort (and then beg for) a credit from a former teacher. Paul is certainly unremarkable, maybe even a little boring, and when he gives a lecture on how the zebra evolutionarily developed its stripes in order to hide among the other animals in the herd, the point is unmistakable.

However, all this suddenly changes as more and more people start dreaming about Paul. Regardless of the type of dream, Paul appears in the background as a passive observer. Although his lack of heroics in the realm of dreams annoys him, Paul is quick to seize his 15 minutes of fame, with the result that the dream epidemic spreads and soon everyone is talking - and dreaming - about the anonymous professor. Paul's family tries hard to keep his soaring ego in check, and the accompanying family drama makes for some powerful scenes, as the chemistry between Paul and his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) is particularly believable.

The relationship with his wife, which slowly begins to fall apart, serves as both the film's emotional anchor and the plot's beacon towards which the action moves. It works well, but not perfectly, as you quickly get the sense that Borgli and the other producers from A24 had an idea and then just took it as far as they could - without necessarily having an ending or point in mind. After the initial family drama, the film focuses on fame in the age of mass hysteria and social media as an advertising agency attempts to capitalise on Paul's brand value. After this, the collective dreams of the anonymous professor turn dark and disturbing. Paul is hated and now the film suddenly becomes more about cancel culture as the unfortunate professor fights not only for his job and reputation, but also for his (suddenly emerging) principles. Throw in dream sequences, humour, action and even some sci-fi elements and you have a film that certainly doesn't waste any of its 100 minutes.

The many shifts in tone, action and location may seem violent, but in a way they reflect the nature of dreams, where associations play havoc with the sad causality of reality. We never quite know where the film is headed, but it all hangs together. The film's technical composition also borrows a trick or two from the dream script. For example, there are plenty of scenes with mirrors and odd camera angles, and both dream interpreters and film analysts are served a massive buffet of selfies. Unfortunately, the actual dream sequences, of which the film contains a number, are a bit lacklustre and, in my opinion, don't do enough to distinguish themselves from the more 'real' scenes.

All of this may sound a bit harsh in writing, so let me end by emphasising that Dream Scenario is definitely not a David Lynch film. Despite some wavering satire and loose plot threads, the central drama is strong and the film is very well acted, with strong performances from the likes of Tim Meadows as Paul's sympathetic department head and Dylan Gelula as a young marketing assistant with a strong (and slightly disturbing) attraction to the unattractive professor. We get the full emotional range of laughter, horror and tears, and while Dream Scenario is unlikely to leave a lasting impression, it's definitely a cinema experience not to be missed.