Dream Scenario – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Kristoffer Borgli
Writer – Kristoffer Borgli
Stars – Lily Bird, Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson

Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) is a professor at a little-known university. He lacks any personal or professional panache. His subject is zoology. He teaches a small group of bored-looking students. He is at best competent and no more. There is nothing which makes him stand out including his apparel which is comfortable and dreary. He is married to Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and they have two daughters Sophie (Lily Bird) and Hannah (Jessica Clements). They live in a well-appointed house which seems a little too grand for Paul but then it transpires it was Janet’s family home where she was brought up. He drifts through life unobtrusively. He is like an inoffensive wallpaper. He makes no impact.

However, without explanation, he has begun to appear in people’s dreams. It is initially in his daughters’ dreams but then in the dreams of complete strangers. His presence in dreams goes viral and he becomes an unlikely celebrity. Eventually, his newfound status starts to have negative consequences which he finds difficult to cope with. Celebrity morphs into notoriety and Paul is out of his depth.

Cage is engrossing to watch as he plays the ineffectual, hapless Paul. His daughters barely engage with him as their phones and laptops are far more interesting than him. He looks to Janet to put a little backbone into his existence. Nicholson as Janet is an understanding wife who, while not expecting Paul to be dynamic, at least expects him to assert himself occasionally. Nicholson conveys the sense that she is the rock on which their marriage is built. For example, when a former colleague Sheila (Paula Boudreau) tells Paul that academic work they did long ago together will, unacknowledged, form part of her new book. Janet nudges Paul to at least require an explanation.

The situations created by these inexplicable appearances in strangers’ dreams give rise to some genuine comic moments. Less successful is the last part of the film, which sits uncomfortably with the rest of Paul’s story.

The strength of the film is Paul’s lack of substance. Shakespeare’s line from Twelfth Night comes to mind, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them”. Norwegian director Borgli, who made another dark comedy with Sick of Myself in 2022, has devised Paul as an anti-hero par excellence. The film raises questions about unwanted celebrity and subsequent notoriety. The good thing is that Borgli ensures that gentle laughter is never far away. Cage’s Paul is an anti-hero who engages and you are on his side.