[This is a re-posting to correct the authorship of the review. It was not written by David Wong Shee, but by "z_ridgeje@ccsvax.sfasu.edu," and the error in attribution was entirely mine. -Moderator]
DREAM LOVER
A film review by Ridgeje
Copyright 1994 Ridgeje
FILM: Dream Lover CAST: James Spader, Madchen Amick, Bess Armstrong DIRECTOR: Nicholas Kazan SCREENPLAY: Nicholas Kazan RUNNING TIME: 1:43 RELEASE: May 6, 1994
"You're a psychopath."
"Psychopaths can love people, too. Can't they?"
The directorial debut of Nicholas Kazan stars James Spader as an architect in search of happiness, and the above is between him and what he's settled for. By that point in the film, Ray has had his life turned upside down, inside down, inside out--but that's jumping a bit too far ahead yet.
The film's start finds Ray in the midst of divorce from the wife he found in bed with another man. He'd be the first to admit divorce isn't what he wants--and the feeling is mutual, it would seem, as his unfaithful wife (who was only looking for a reason to leave their marriage) tells him: "I know you'll find the right person, and when you do, she'll be the luckiest woman alive"--but Ray has never been very good at containing his anger (especially under those circumstances), and ultimately struck his wife.
Time passes, and his friends feel it time for Ray to start a new life, with a new woman. Ray agrees: "I want the kids, the dog, the Volvo," but would be satisfied if everyone just left him alone while finding these things. Namely, the wife part. That doesn't stop a business colleague/best friend (Larry Miller) from hooking him up with a ditsy broad, anyway, whom Ray encounters at a party. "We're practically engaged," she tells him, which doesn't make him all that happy. What Ray really needs is the right woman--the perfect woman--to give him the life he wants and get the friends, who only want the best for him, off his back. Salvation comes (well, maybe) in the form of Lena, whose nice dress Ray ruins with a clumsy wine spill. He offers to help her clean up, but she's clearly pissed beyond the point of reprieve ... or, at least, to engage in polite conversation.
Their second encounter proves a bit more fruitful when Ray runs into Lena while shopping at a grocery store. He is taken aback by her beauty (as are we). He can't take his eyes off her (neither can we). He takes her to dinner, she tells him her interests in life, and then walks her to her apartment where he ends up spending the night. He's hooked. Problem is Ray can't find his one-nighter afterwards and so, like a lover confused, he stalks her apartment, waiting outside to finally see her ... with another man, who Lena is quick to explain is only a "friend."
Before she has the chance to get away from him again, Ray married this sensuous woman he hasn't taken the time to know anything about. They're very happy for a while, too, matching sexual drives pound for pound, and have a child together. He's in love with her, his friends love her; it's all so perfect. Too perfect. This is one mysterious lady Ray's decided to spend his life with, but it takes him a while to see past the facade that's blinded him and wake up to the lies she's feeding him. Easy to see why; as Ray tells a friend (the friend who may, in fact, be sleeping with his new bride): "The most gorgeous creature I've ever seen, and she chose me." When suspicions do arise withing Ray that perhaps Lena has been as untruthful as any one person can be with another, he simply forgets it all and loses himself in her beauty. Even when he overhears her immersed in flirtatious phone talk, Ray continues putting aside any good judgment aside. He should know better.
Eventually Ray hits his wife (again) ... and then hits her harder. The "I bruise easy" BS she gave Ray comes back to haunt him with a vengeance when he's committed to a mental institution for wife-beating. Ray denies emphatically having inflicted the injuries that can so vividly be seen on Lena's face; he appears cool, calm, collected and completely in a healthy state of mind until other people start lying on his wife's behalf. That sets him off, spewing profanities left and right and putting up fight with security. Ray is there to stay.
The woman responsible for tearing this Everyman apart with her bare hands is Lena (Thelma/Sissy), and she is played by Madchen Amick. She is drop-dead gorgeous, using her sexuality to get exactly what she wants from men. Her latest innocent devises a plan to get back at her and then ending, when that plan comes to head, is a genuine surprise. Not because of what takes place, but because of the rationale behind it--Kazan's screenplay finds a way for Ray to get revenge, while pointing a finger at the irony involved with the court system in America concurrently. It's brilliant; a real surprise. Lena gets what she deserves, leading us to assume that eventually Ray will, too.
Kazan directs Spader and Amick the way you'd expect a first-timer to: professionally, but not exceptionally. We get a lot of eye close-ups that would seem to give some sort of dark insight as to what's going on within the heads of these people. We can tell by looking at Spader's face exactly what Ray is feeling, so seeing his eyes enlarged on-screen makes them bigger, not anymore meaningful. Kazan's script isn't anything all that fresh, just an outline of thriller cliches. And as a thriller, DREAM LOVER is notably a low-key film.
What makes it all work are the two stars at play. James Spader is an interesting young actor, at times giving a concentrated stare that suggests pain, frustration, anger, and subtle attraction all at once. He always seems to have more than one thing on his mind, and feels one step ahead of the audience even when the screenplay calls for him not to be. Spader is quite good at portraying more feeling than the film really deserves, and aside from JACK'S BACK, I'm not sure he's been this good.
At the opposite end is Amick, who isn't all that competent an actress, but passable as the femme fatale. She pinpoints Lena's angle right off, playing it sweet and relaxed during the first third of the movie--like a confident sexpot would--and becoming less so toward the end. She even starts enjoying herself as Lena lets her true colors shine: After Ray punches her in the face, she sits up with a grin and says, "Is that all?" But we understand all of this; Amick never moves on. If nothing more, you may be intrigued to simply look at her; she truly is smashing. Both she and Spader look great in the film, so credit the make-up and costume designers for doing a bang-up job. In face, while watching DREAM LOVER, I found myself examining the actors' (just the leads) faces and not thinking a lot about what was going on around them. Their scenes together are sexy and believable and well-performed.
But I believe I've hit upon something else. It's probably best to not take under consideration the majority of what happens in DREAM LOVER--no one involved with the project did. We find out that Lena is not he housewife Ray wants, but a woman with a specific purpose. She even asks Ray to give her credit for becoming a different person because in Lena's opinion, not many people could do with their lives what she's done with her own. Ray isn't concerned with philosophy; all he wanted was to be in love and have children with a wife. That's why what finally happens is more damaging for Ray that for Lena.
It isn't a complicated process, but the film isn't ever boring, either. It could've been executed more successfully; Director Kazan would perhaps have had a better film on his hands having wiped out a few of the dream sequences in translation of script to screen; the sequences are excessive and pointless (there are four long ones), and one too many uninvolving scenes linger. Overall, though, what's here makes for a serviceable little erotic mystery that is marvelous to look at.
Forget the plot. Feast your eyes on Spader and the heart-stoppingly beautiful Madchen Amick. Two actors never looked this good in a movie.
Rated R CRITICAL RATING: ***
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