Review of The Science of Sleep (2006) by Jamie S — 17 Dec 2012

It's a beautiful mess. (Oxymoron works wonderfully in here. But no, beautiful and mess aren't exactly opposites. Let's just say it's amusingly bemusing. There.).

Someone has to be in Parallel Synchronized Randomness [phrase adapted from the film, which I'll MOST LIKELY adapt in future occasions] with Michel Gondry to totally pick up this creative mayhem. The Science of Sleep is a surreal, childlike invention, peppered with plenty of visual imageries and creative convolutions. It's a hodgepodge of lovely sights (including Gael Garcia Bernal's handsomeness), quaint sounds, and a pleasurable script, never mind if I did not get the whole story itself.

Truthfully, it was schizophrenic watching the whole tale. In other words, I was picking up the ingenious craftsmanship but NOT the story. Stéphane (Gael Garcia Bernal) couldn't delineate his real world from his dream world, and neither could I (Is he dreaming in this scene or is this for real?). All throughout the film, my brows were crinkling in puzzlement, but I had big smiles due to visual enjoyment. After all the credits rolled in, I took a dream-like state and had a mental rewind, then I finally got it. I had to. It's not that easy to grasp at first watch (for me at least) but having said that, the confusing storyline doesn't do damage at all. It's the R.E.M.-like effect while watching the movie that carried all the beautiful weight. 01/02/10.