Statistics say about 3 in 1000 people kill themselves. If you figure at least 10 times as many people attempt & fail, and 10 times that seriously consider it, multiplied by the number of friends & family they each have, then chances are pretty high that you or someone you know is familiar with suicide. Surprisingly though, there are very few films that hit the subject head on.
Maybe that's because, to quote Sigourney Weaver in "The TV Set", "Suicide is, like, depressing to 80% of all people!"
Well for what it's worth, "Lost Dream" is one of those rare films that hits it head on. We begin with "Perry" (Michael Welch), the richboy son of a congressman who, in his opening scenes is standing on the edge of a cliff wondering if the American dream (or any other dream for that matter) is worth living for. He meets the brooding "Giovanni" (Shaun Sipos), a tortured artist who spends his days either wasted on the drug du jour, or playing a ritual involving a gun and 1 bullet.
Really that's all there is to the plot, so if you're looking for car chases, contrived romances and nail-biting mysteries, you won't find that here. What you will find is one of the most honest films out there. Through a very lucid script and some impressively explosive performances by the 2 lead actors, we get a very distinct picture of suicidal depression from 2 interesting points of view: Perry's which is a pseudo-intellectual, existentialist attitude, and Giovanni's which is a purely emotional "anything to make the pain stop" attitude. The two clash, find common ground, find reasons to hate each other and find reasons to stick together. Both actors, each making excellent, electrifying performances, expose their cynicism, fears, arrogance & vulnerabilities in a very raw way. No, this is not some stylized Hollywood story about tough guys with a deathwish, but instead it's a very humbling & emotional portrayal of desperate souls.
One thing I found very interesting was the way they would argue and insist that the other doesn't understand pain, or doesn't have as much right to be depressed. You begin to realize that there is no way any person could presume to know how anyone else feels. You also realize that appearances mean nothing and have no bearing on whether a person is (or should be) happy. Most of all, you realize what I believe writer/director Asif Ahmed is trying to tell us: there are no quick fixes, no easy answers, no magic revelations that explain why people want to kill themselves. And, whether or not "Lost Dream" meets Hollywood's criteria for having a digestible story tied up in a neat bow, this movie delivers perhaps the most honest approach to the subject on film.
Be forewarned, there are scenes that may make people feel uncomfortable. Not-so- glamorous scenes of emotional outbursts, drug use, selfishness and downright douchebaggy behavior. But I still found both characters to be very likable and magnetic to watch. Rounded out by a cool fitting soundtrack, mostly acoustic guitar and vocal by Ilyas Ahmed (I'm guessing somehow related to the director?), "Lost Dream" is a film that will sit in your mind for a long time.
