The Science of Sleep (a guest review by Mr. Me)

Michel Gondry seems to me like a man on a mission: a mission to revive hand-crafted gadgets and in-camera tricks for special effects in this age of plastic-looking digital tomfoolery. This mission might have just taken place on the sets of his bizarre music videos, but luckily for us, he has chosen to move forward by making fantastic films that push him to the very limits of his creativity. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind combined Gondry's kinetic, unpredictable style with a Charlie Kaufman script about love, memory, loss, and the loss of memories of love, to make a film that was, without question, unforgettable. Similarly, Gondry has once more created a contradiction of a film with The Science of Sleep, as it will undoubtedly awaken your inner artist.

This time around, Gondry wears many hats once more. He both wrote and directed The Science of Sleep, his third feature, but it's the first solo effort to receive this much attention stateside. His story follows a young artist named Stephane (played with likeable eccentricity by Gael Garcia Bernal), who returns from Mexico to live and work in Paris with his mother after his father dies from cancer. Stephane takes up residence in his old room in an apartment building his mother owns, and a moving accident causes him to meet his new neighbor Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a fellow creatively-minded young Parisian. A relationship forms over their shared interest in creating art for the sake of creation. Stephane shows off his "inventions" like 3-D glasses for seeing real life in 3-D, and a one second time-travel machine (backwards and forwards). We soon find out, however, that Stephane's trouble with separating his dreams from his real day-to-day existence has wild repercussions for those that he chooses to befriend.

Visually, The Science of Sleep is without rival. Its real-world locales, but especially its dream-world counterparts, shoot straight off the screen and capture the audience's eye instantly. Gondry does this to increasingly blur the line between dreams and reality for his protagonist. Stephane's dream version of Paris features all kinds of homemade alterations like cardboard tube trains and yarn-fed pulley systems, just like the ones he rigs up in his apartment bedroom. This distinction between real and imagined is easy for the viewer to decipher, for the frenetic cutting and camera movement of Stephane's dreams is contrasted by smooth, even cinematography when he is awake. However, it isn't diffcult to see how Stephane becomes confused by his life that is continually looping back thematically and commenting upon itself.

This is not to say that the film's unique look is overwhelming, or that the film is all style and no substance. It simply provides the perfect expressionist background for the touching relationship drama that unfolds in The Science of Sleep. Stephane, while initially attracted to the fetching Zoe, finds himself more and more obsessed with the creative Stephanie, and his encouraging romantic episodes with her in his dreams only reinforce this obsession. However, these fantasies become problematic when his feelings are not reciprocated, as is so often the case. Stephane's unique mental situation blows the issue up even larger, making his seemingly small life into an increasingly harsh universe that cannot be escaped.

While Stephane's inability to separate fantasy and reality is somewhat of a construct for the purposes of the film, it represents the insecurities and nagging subconscious worries we all have in our personal relationships. Some might find this to be the weak point of the film, that Stephane's unusual nature is both very genuine in the film and next to impossible to function with in real life, but Bernal plays it with such sincerity it is easy to accept as true. Also, for all the strange ups and downs of their relationship, Gainsborough's Stephanie always seems willing to give Stephane the benefit of the doubt. And although The Science of Sleep is certainly unlikely to close with a stock Hollywood ending, the film's final scenes are definitely pure Gondry, both evocative and emotional.

On the venerable 22 scale, I rate The Science of Sleep a 18. It's not perfect, no, but it does flirt with such excellence on more than one occasion. The Science of Sleep is to be praised for its ingenious sets and visuals, its fun and refreshingly different lead characters, and its commitment to the creative mind. If pressed, I would say I liked it even more than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as its boundless energy and imaginative spirit are so utterly appealing throughout. Great style plus interesting characters times heartfelt storyline equals one fine film; that's a irrefutable formula. So treat both sides of your brain to a feast, and go see The Science of Sleep. Simply put, it's a dream.
-Mr. Me