Review of Dream House (2011) by Christopher E — 04 Apr 2016

"Dream House" is a lifeless mess that offers no consistency, and ultimately falls far short from any goal it had in mind.

"Dream House" follows the story a middle aged man who quits his job as an editor in order to spend more time with his family. As he goes home, he attempt to settle his family into their new house. However, not everything is as it seems, as a certain tragedy starts to creep its way into the household. As things start to go array, he must piece together the puzzle of what is truly going on here, before confronting the horrors that await him.

To start, this is one of the most illogical and messy movies I've seen in a while. This movie is practically three separate ideas meshed into one film, but none of them strong enough to last for more than one act. The first act of this movie is this creepy thriller that opens the door to the mysteries that lie ahead. However, when the second act rolls around, we are blatantly told the exposition, taking away any freedom of creativity in our minds. The whole point of a movie like this is to let the audiences also decipher the puzzle as they go along, but the movie flat out tells you what's going on. But whatever, maybe this movie is more of a psychological drama, and how this one man will have to deal with the tragedies at stake. This proves to be false when the third act rolls around, resulting in some slasher-type film with a horrible twist that has no right being there in the first place. None of the movie's events flowed together, and in the end, solidified the fact that the director himself had no idea what this movie was about.

The screenplay was also downright abysmal, as it tried to be this smart, clever film with plenty of subtle actions, but it was none of that. The only thing it did alright was the fact that it established our main character, Will Atenton, as a loving family man. He has a great relationship with his family members, so that was nice to see. However, the movie does a horrible job of being subtle, as it flat out tells you what's going on about halfway through. None of the dialogue was particularly interesting, leaving you wondering what the point of this movie was.

When emotional scenes were going down, it was often supplied with bad writing, bad acting, and a lack of purpose. This movie failed on many levels, and was not only not able to affect me psychologically, but had no effect on me emotionally.

The worst part about this is the fact the it was obvious they tried. The director and the writer truly felt like they had a clear cut vision here, which they didn't. You can tell Daniel Craig also gave it his all, but in the end, the lack of a clear path was obvious, and nothing made sense in the end.

In the end, this movie was a complete train wreck. Not only do things not make sense in the end, but it was sloppy in every way. I recommend everyone to avoid watching this film, as it's nothing near a dream as its title may suggest.