Dream House

For a movie boasting such an amazing staff of talent both on and off the screen, it's mind-boggling just how silly Dream House is. Let's just take a closer look at who got suckered into this project. The director is Jim Sheridan, the acclaimed filmmaker of such movies as My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father. The cinematographer is none other than the five-time Oscar nominated Caleb Deschanel. And the cast includes names like Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts. With this kind of talent involved, you'd expect some kind of A-picture. But, nope. What we have is a dreary and dumb psychological thriller that the studio had so little confidence in, they didn't screen it for critics this weekend.

Before I go into too much detail about this film, I feel I should talk about the film's ad campaign, particularly the trailer that's been playing in theaters for a couple months now. For whatever reason, Universal Pictures has decided to reveal the film's major plot twist that comes half way into the movie in its ad campaign. This brilliant decision naturally hurts the enjoyment of the audience, as they already know the big reveal before it even happens. Why this idea was approved, I have no idea. Trailers are supposed to get us intrigued about a film, not tell us everything about them. So, if you do have any desire to see this film, I suggest you stay away from watching the advertising. It will probably improve your chances on enjoying the first half of the movie. But nothing can help you appreciate the idiotic revelations lying in wait in the third act. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. More on that later.

Daniel Craig plays Will Atenton, who quits his job at a big city publishing company, so that he can move to a small suburb in New Oxford with his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz), and their two angel-faced little daughters. Will sees this as a chance to start a peaceful life, and work on that novel he's always dreamed of writing. But, since this is a thriller, we know the guy's kidding himself. As soon as he moves into his new home, things seem amiss. All of the neighbors are strangely nervous around him, or glare at him suspiciously as they drive by his house. The ominous signs keep on piling up - The daughters start complaining that there's a man watching them through the windows, shadowy figures start lurking about outside the house late at night, and weird Goth kids are sneaking into his basement, so that they can perform weird rituals.

Those kids leave behind some clues scribbled on the basement walls that seem to hint that the home's previous owner was involved in murdering his wife and children, and now resides at the local asylum. Will tries to gather some information about the home's previous owner from neighbors and the police, but nobody seems willing to help him. The woman who lives across the street, Ann Patterson (Naomi Watts), probably gives Will the kindest treatment, but even she seems to be holding something back. Finally, Will decides to take the investigation into his own hands, and visit the asylum with the information he's gathered on the house's previous owner - a man named Peter Berg. What he learns there, I will not reveal, but the trailers have already revealed the answer to this mystery, so there's really no point. Where the movie goes after this revelation is to one of the dumbest third act reveals in recent memory.

How could anyone look at the third act of Dream House, and be satisfied with it? Especially with people as talented as Sheridan, Craig, and Weisz on board. Was this the direction that the screenplay by David Loucka really went? Was it studio interference? I'll probably never know, but the last 15 minutes are almost the definition of a Hollywood hack job. Even before the movie completely collapses, it's never that interesting to begin with. Sheridan directs with a lethargic and melancholy style that seems more dull than artistic. The film's not very scary to begin with (though Sheridan does try to throw a couple jump moments in there), but the sluggish storytelling will challenge anyone to stay awake while watching it.

And maybe it's just me, but Daniel Craig seems a bit miscast as a loving husband and father. That kind of part calls for a "warm" actor, and Craig does not exactly bring forth warmth in his performances. He's not bad, particularly, and he does what he can with the role. I just had a hard time buying what he was selling. The lead female roles for Weisz and Watts are surprisingly underwritten. Weisz is given little to do, other than clasp her hands together and fret for the safety of her family, while Watts character is too thin to really become attached to. The only person who really seems to be on his game is cinematographer Deschanel, who gives the movie a surprising amount of visual beauty. This is a great movie to look at, but not so great to actually watch and pay attention to.

Dream House is a very odd and frustrating movie. You can see potential just about everywhere, but it keeps on coming up short. The movie seems to want to be a fairly intelligent psychological thriller, but something got severely dumbed down somewhere along the way. I personally would love to see this director work again with this cast. Hopefully with a project worthy of attracting their talents.

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