Graham Greene, the English novelist once wrote of dreams: "It can be a comfort sometimes to know that there is a world which is purely one's own — the experience in that world of travel, danger, happiness, is shared with no one else." The young man in Michael Gondry's unusual French film regularly escapes into his own special world where things are much more exciting than his day-by-day reality. There have not been many films about dreams and for that reason this drama is worth experiencing, even though the main character is very off-putting. The rationalists among us, and their number seems to be increasing, will be glad that Gondry has given them another example of the dangers of creativity and the excesses of a life based on imagination.

Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) returns to the apartment where he was raised as a child. He barely fits into the bed which served him so well when he was small. His mother (Miou-Miou) has gotten him a creative job with a calendar publisher. However, Stephane is very disappointed when he discovers that all that is required of him is menial paste-up work. Guy (Alain Chabat) introduces him to the boring office procedures and his two other co-workers (Aurelia Petit and Sacha Bourdo). When Stephane shows his sketches for a Disaster Calendar with various tragedies spotlighted each month, his boss (Pierre Vaneck) thinks his new employee has gone around the bend.

In his mind, Stephane hosts a TV show where he expounds on "the Science of Sleep" where dreams are comprised of random thoughts, reminiscences of the day, memories, love, relationships, friends, and a smorgasbord of images. He also explains the delights of "Parallel Synchronized Randomness" where two people who have the same thought patterns can find each other. His dream life is greatly amplified after meeting his neighbor Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). She is kindred creative spirit whose apartment is filled with paintings and sculptures she has fashioned. He tries to impress her with 3-D glasses and a One-Second Time machine but the more she sees him, the more she becomes convinced that he is batty and unable to deal with emotional intimacy.

Stephane is a child who refuses to grow up, and his retreat into the dream world is a conscious rejection of the real world. For a time, this character charms us with his whimsical ways but he soon wears out his welcome and reveals himself to be a very sad and lost soul.


Special DVD features include a commentary by writer-director Michel Gondry and actors Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Sacha Bourdo; The Making of The Science of Sleep; a featurette on Lauri Faggioni, creator of "Animals and Accessories"; a Linda Serbu "Rescue Me" music video; and "Adopt Some Love: a Linda Serbu film."