The Science of Sleep

It irks me that I don't have time to review this properly, but let me say that this is hands-down my favourite film of the year! (Of course, Transformers isn't out yet.)

This is Michel Gondry's follow-up feature to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — one of my favs of 2004 (despite the fact that it became cool to say so). Gondry also wrote the film, so it's no surprise that he has created for himself in a series of dream sequences the perfect opportunity to showcase his trippy imagination, which he brings to life through stop-motion and other animation techniques. (The French title is La science des rêves — the science of dreams.) The art in the film is so much a magical presence that the art department is rightly billed in the credits immediately after the cast.

The plot that tenuously holds it all together is a love story between Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) and Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), both of whom I'd be happy to watch for a couple of hours, even if they were just mowing their lawn. Gainsbourg in particular does a believable, affecting job with the unusual subject-matter, and with a character about whom we're not quite sure how to feel. Indeed, the ambiguity of the characterization of both protagonists plays with our sympathies, and sets up what I think is simply a perfect ending.

It's a film that demands multiple viewings for a full appreciation, and I shall be anxious to watch it again when it comes out on DVD (unless I can get to the cinema again between now and Thursday). I beg you, though, watch it now, before it disappears from cinemas all together, and before it gains a cult following as the next hip thing!