John Chard

Stylistic Dirge. In Dreams is directed by Neil Jordan and adapted to screenplay by Jordan and Bruce Robinson from the Bari Wood novel. It stars Annette Bening, Aidan Quinn, Robert Downey Jr.and Paul Guilfoyle. Music is by Elliot Goldenthal and cinematography by Darius Khondji. In this contrived thriller, Bening is a grief stricken housewife who finds her thoughts in sync with a serial killer (a ridiculously miscast Downey Jr.). Neil Jordan is a great director, but he's also a very frustrating one, case in point In Dreams. The visuals are outstanding here as Jordan and Khondji paint a nightmarish world, but the flashbacks are unfocused and any sense of suspense or plot progression is lost in a whirl of stylised indulgence. Strip away the style and you find a formulaic serial killer picture hiding behind arty farty stubbornness. Bening's performance deserves a better movie, and it is with her, and the visual smarts, that the pic remains of interest till its resolution. 5/10