Review of Opal Dream (2006) by Chads. — 22 Apr 2007

"Kellyanne(Sapphire Boyce) and Francie(from Patrick McCabe's novel "The Butcher Boy") sitting in a tree..." Those two crazy kids would understand each other. Although Kelllyanne's psychotic break is cuter than his, the little blonde-haired, blue-eyed pixie will make you squirm as she participates in playtime with thin air.

Intentional or not, "Opal Dreams" can be scary; Kellyanne's tenacious single-mindedness for the make-believe has the power to disturb. She's seriously f****d-up. Let's blame the parents.

"Opal Dreams" could easily be construed as a backlash against the counterculture of the late-sixties. Look at her older brother, for instance, he's the one who should probably have the imaginary friends named Pobby and Dingan; the poor kid is named Ashmol(derived from "ashram"), which suggests that his parents were hippies and smoked a lot of pot on a commune.

Kellyanne's imaginary friends have no religious affiliation; they're pacifists, an ideal perhaps hatched up by a little girl exposed to too many John Lennon records("Imagine no religion/it's easy if you try.

..), and pot. That's not to say "Opal Dreams" is a bad film. To me, it's the story of two former-flower children who are paying the price for their free-love, free-your-mind heyday.