In Dreams (1999)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Neil Jordan

Writers (WGA):

Bari Wood (novel)
Bruce Robinson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 January 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

You don't have to sleep to dream

Plot:

Claire Cooper dreams strange things from time to time. One night, she dreams about a little girl being taken away by a stranger...

Plot Keywords:

Dream | Padded Cell | Suicide Attempt | Daydream | Red

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Annette Bening	...	Claire Cooper
Katie Sagona	...	Rebecca Cooper
Aidan Quinn	...	Paul Cooper
Robert Downey Jr.	...	Vivian Thompson
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Detective Jack Kay
Kathleen Langlois	...	Snow White
Jennifer Berry	...	Hunter
Emma J. Brown	...	Dwarf
Jennifer Dragon	...	Dwarf
Samantha Kelly	...	Dwarf
Jennifer Caine Natenshon	...	Dwarf
Bethany M. Paquin	...	Dwarf
Erica Sullivan	...	Dwarf
Amelia Claire Novotny	...	Prince
Kristin Sroka	...	Wicked Stepmother

Also Known As:

Blue Vision (USA) (working title)
Prémonitions (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
A Premonição (Brazil) [pt]
Crime în vis (Romania) [ro]
Dentro de mis sueños (Spain) [es]
Efialtikes nyhtes (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
In Dreams (Italy) [it]
In Dreams (Spain) [es]
Jenseits der Träume (Germany) [de]
Mardrömmar (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Painajaisissa (Finland) [fi]
Premonição (Portugal) (video title) [pt]
Sueños de un asesino (Colombia) (cable TV title) [es]
U snovima (Serbia) [sr]

MPAA:

Rated R for violence/terror and language.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #36294) | Philippines:R-18 | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Australia:MA | Canada:18A | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Portugal:M/16 (video premiere) | South Korea:18 | UK:18 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Amblin Entertainment

Goofs:

Factual errors: During sentencing, the judge tells Vivian "the State of Massachusetts has declared you insane," thus making him ineligible for the death penalty. In legal parlance, Massachusetts is always referred to as a Commonwealth, and does not practice the death penalty.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Claire: [Helping daughter rehearse lines from Snow White while walking through trees by lake.]
[In sing-song voice]
Claire: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of us all?
Rebecca Cooper: [Skipping through trees by lake.]
[In sing-song voice]
Rebecca Cooper: You're the fairest in this hall but Snow WHITE is THE...
Claire: [Laughs] Come on Rebecca, forget it's a play. Just, say it like you're saying it to me.
Rebecca Cooper: [sing-song voice] Snow White's the fairest of them all.
Claire: And again.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Los sin nombre (1999)

Soundtrack:

IN DREAMS

APPLES are a key representation!!!

Apples, Apples, Apples, that's what everyone keeps saying about this film. Perhaps it was a little overdone, but did anyone ever stop to think that the apples were representative of Clair's fear. The apple, the most innocent of all things, a fruit, as the repository of one's own nightmares and fears is creepy enough in itself. Many regard the scene where Clair is frantically throwing apples from a pile on the cupboard into the garburator of the sink as funny. I didn't I was well enough into the film, that the moment actually felt creepy. Jordan's vicious left/right pans of the camera reinforced her feeling of panic or anxiety around the apples.

To mention a couple of the other good points about "In Dreams", there were a couple of ingenious cross cutting scenes created. The first is a cross cut sequence involving Clair who is now in the mental hospital and her husband who goes to the motel that she dreamed about to find the dog. Another wonderful cross-cut sequence involves the escape from the institution. In her dreams, Clair follows Vivian (who had spent time in the exact same room as Clair) out of the institution, and there is much cross-cutting between the past and the present. Much suspense was built in the production of this scene. I don't want to give away any of the ending, but trust me, it scared me lifeless. This is definitely not Neil Jordan's best work, certainly "The Crying Game" is his masterpiece, but nevertheless, this is an original horror suspense film that delivers a punch!