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When it comes to personal decision-making, there are user guides to life including steps like listening to your parents, going to school, earning your degree finding a partner buying property raising children sending them to college, and then waiting for death. Jim Sheridan takes this default life model and puts it into a psychotic thriller in his film, DREAM HOUSE. In the film, he seems to ask subtly, what if everything you hoped for turned against you? What makes this movie a cliche, yet intriguing is the fascination with Freudian symbolism and trauma. I have to confess that DREAM HOUSE is captivating if you’re watching it on a rainy day.
As for the plot, DREAM HOUSE is centered around Wil Atenton (Daniel Craig) who is an editor at a New York publishing house. To spend more time with his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and his two girls, he quits his job. They recently bought a house in what seems to be Long Island, which is in a quiet neighborhood, and edges toward being a dream location.
The owners of the house next to Wil’s family were never eager to meet them and now it appears that even his wife is scared of an unidentifiable menace wandering within the house. A few years back, a man by the name of Peter Ward brutally murdered his family in the residence that Atentons now owns. Five years later, Ward was discharged from the asylum, simply due to the absence of proof which has raised a significant concern for Wil. The lunatic has the possibility of returning to his previous neighborhood and that is a troubling scenario for Wil.
A film blending horror with mystery is a common sight these days and neither does DREAM HOUSE particularly impress. The sub-genre “the house that keeps secrets” has been used in films such as THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, SINISTER, and countless others all of which have executed it better. However, I must give bonus points to DREAM HOUSE for not delving into cheap shock value. The film exudes class and intelligence at all times, which is great, yet it also prevents the film from creating a unique identity for itself. Two weeks back, Josie and I started and, to our utter surprise, realized we had already completed watching it. It was at this moment that we understood how deeply unsettling the situation was. Generally, more thought is put into devising a question a film fails to receive from its audience but in this case, it was heartbreaking to see how much thought had been put into changing the question. I am shocked house haven’t ever used these dangerously difficult questions before. The complexity of the questions is that they provide realistic explanations that can leave a viewer both thoroughly satisfied and perplexed. A deeply thought-provoking and comically mesmerizing dilemma for me.
What has always interested me about DREAM HOUSE is how scary Daniel Craig is in this movie. It’s all about a disoriented Craig with a poorly cut Leonardo DiCaprio 1996 hairstyle, a tight leather jacket, and some deep-rooted psychological issues that make him seem so unique. From how happy and caring Craig’s character is in the beginning to how forlorn and ghastly he transforms throughout the film, is simply brilliant. Craig’s transformation into a gloomy and strange persona was far from subtle, but at least I can say it added a refreshing spin to the film. Otherwise, not even the cleverness of the plot was enough to save this movie from either. The plot and actors are amazing, bearing in mind that Elias Koteas is one of the most underrated Hollywood actors. The only problem is their execution. The same can be said about the rest of the cast. How intelligent and cerebral DREAM HOUSE is makes it even more scary on its own. Movies that are less clever tend to make a deeper impression due to their tablerous conception.
DREAM HOUSE has so many distinguishable features, yet there is one mightier than them all it is too mediocre. The film is so effortlessly polished and sweetened that there seems to be a lack of their trademark identity.
The plan was stunning instilling the viewer with dread using routine, DREAD HOUSE was able to echo its message across but it was terribly inaudible. Perhaps it is best suited for a novel in which Daniel Craig’s character could better portray his inner self. DREAD HOUSE does not have the kind of visual violence that other psychological thrillers possess. It lacks a coherent personality; it suggests flashes of what it could have developed into. You don’t feel enraged having wasted two hours of your day on it, but instead that hollow feeling forms in your chest because you realize you could’ve been more active with your free time. Sometimes a movie can be so smart and so elegant, yet so simple to the point of being boring. Jim Sheridan is not able to do psychological thrillers and that shortchanges him. It is not one for the memories.
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