Michel Gondry has a knack for taking the banal and making it extraordinary. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the maxim "those who forget their past are destined to repeat it" provided a launching pad for an enigmatic journey to the heart of what it means to be human. With The Science of Sleep, his third film and first screenplay, Gondry rips open the clich‚d notion of "following your dreams."
In Sleep, St‚phane Miroux (Gael Garc¡a Bernal) is a man incapable of distinguishing his dreams from reality. This manifests itself as unfulfilled wishes: saying goodbye to his dead father, escaping the tedium of his job and receiving a smothering of kisses from Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), his next-door neighbor. The dreams also reflect his dark desire to destroy the adult world and recreate it in his whimsical vision. St‚phane's great test is to escape his dreams, while simultaneously fulfilling their better desires.
Overall, the film's acting is strong but lopsided. Garc¡a Bernal presents a St‚phane who is manic, heart-wrenching and delightfully nuanced. But whereas Jim Carrey's performance in Eternal Sunshine soared alongside Kate Winslet, Garc¡a Bernal's delivery at times feels wasted on the consistently bland Gainsbourg. As a result, Stephanie proves to be more of a receptacle for St‚phane's guilt and insanity than a realistic counterpart. The dialogue punches best in scenes with Alain Chabat, who plays to hilarious perfection the role of Guy, St‚phane's coworker and paternalistic Id.
Not surprisingly, the film's shining star is Gondry. He creates metaphorical imagery both dystopian - a two-dimensional Paris cityscape flapping like underwater reeds - and beautifully simplistic. Watching Sleep, with its fuzzy slip-and-slide through reality, can be a maddening experience. But it is due to Gondry's pretty pictures and complex story arc that this film will inspire not just awe, but repeated viewings.
