My Dreams of You

Every Saturday after our usual steak and wine dinner (of course, with chocolate cake for desert) my wife and I look for an entertaining movie that doesn't require too much brain power, but is interesting. We found this one, Streaming on Peacock, and it fit the bill very nicely. We both enjoyed the viewing.

It is about Grace and Michael, two people in different cities who don't know each other. She works temp jobs as she writes, hoping to strike it big with her novel. But rejections keep getting in her way.

Michael is a musician, he plays guitar, composes, and sings.

Somehow Grace has recurrent dreams involving Michael although the two have never met. She naturally wonders if he is a real person or just a construct of her imagination and wishes. Then she finds out what is going on, she meets the young lady at the Dream Academy, the organization that formulates the dreams that people have.

So the hook in this story has a strong magical fantasy element, due to an error Grace gets dreams she is not supposed to, and Michael says he doesn't dream.

The story weaves through a number of issues, the ideas are novel and the script is smartly written. It is a pleasant and very nicely entertaining movie. The two main actors are very good in their roles.

The movie puts me in mind of a cross between In My Dreams (2014) and Ghosts of Christmas Always (2023). The first is obvious and probably better than this movie. The mechanics behind the Dream making and the ensuing screw ups echoes the latter movie. It is this totally unusual approach that lifts this movie slightly above the same old Saturday night stuff on Hallmark.

I'm not familiar with either of the leads. Someone really screwed up the credits on this website because Sklyer Samuels is listed at this writing as Emily. She is actually Grace.

Most of the acting is decent, at least for the real characters. The supernatural characters maybe not so much, but the whole operation behind the dream making has a Bush League feel. They are using VHS tapes for storage. The office has a pedestrian feel and maybe dated also.

Samuels and Kapil Talwalkar have chemistry. Their characters and relationship are appealing and for me this was where any hook was.

It seemed to me like the theme of chasing your dreams was pushed a little too hard, where "dreams" in this case is like "hopes and dreams" rather than what you do while asleep. It's not uncommon for Hallmark, but it can be carried a little too far. I thought it interesting that the story set up the idea of Grace as a struggling artist barely making ends meet, even to the point of having to borrow money. But when she went chasing Michael she seemed to have a lot of money to spend.

My rating acknowledges the somewhat unusual story and quirkiness of it, but I'm not sure if this is one I will want to watch again.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Hallmark movie. It was different, cute, and quirky. The dream concept was an interesting surprise, and though totally different for the network, it was quite refreshing.

The main characters had chemistry, and I love that they were pursuing their creative dreams; I can relate to that. It's hard to do so when society expects you to do what is considered the life path norm. I was rooting for her to get on that train with him.

The ending was sweet and quite the happily ever after. I enjoyed the different types of stories and just enjoyed them for what they were: pure entertainment.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, for the most part. It was a totally different kind of movie for Hallmark or at least one I've never seen before. I thought the story line was fun, different and well written. The cast including the support cast all did a great job and were well casted for their parts. We really enjoyed the lead actress as well as the dream writter gal, they were both adorable and we hope to see more of them in the future. The main reason for not giving this a rating of 8 is because of Michael (Kapil Talwalkar). I'm sorry, but this guy couldn't act his way out of paper bag. He took what was a really enjoyable movie for us, and made it almost hard to watch. While Skyler Samuel's seemed/portrayed a good chemistry with Kapil, it didn't seem like it was returned at all by him. He and his acting just seemed really cheesy and well, terrible. I really wish his part would have been given to someone or anyone else. All in all we did enjoy the movie, but with one change to the cast I think we could have really enjoyed it.

Initially, I thought I wasn't going to care for this film whose main conceptual theme seems to be to not give up on your dreams...even if that means not being able to pay your rent and having to struggle working unfulfilling temp jobs while getting rejections, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying the film by the end because of it's creativity. I feel like this was a bit of a departure for Hallmark in that there was a fully fleshed out and imaginative Dream Central that is not only distinctly colored, but containing a whole staff of individuals whose job it is to watch video tapes of people's past to create dreams for them seeded with memories and experiences.

A new dream central employee makes a mistake and adds a Portland native musician named Michael to Grace's dreams. The problem is Grace has never met Michael and was never meant too. The new dream creator, Alura, and her supervisor , Harvey, have to go to the real world from Dream Central in order to convince Grace to allow them to erase Michael from her memory. The problem is Dream Michael is too great, so Grace tries to dodge Alura and Harvey...and meets Michael in person. Only Michael doesn't know who Grace is, but they get along famously in real life...just like in Grace's dreams. The two bond over their struggles to make it with their dreams, Michael is a want to be singer-songwriter and Grace wants to be a published author. The two collaborate a bit on a bicoastal trip back to Portland, Oregon (Michael's hometown), from Grace's hometown of Grand Rapids, MI.

I loved the look and feel of Dream Central with it's 1950's colors and VHS tapes, etc. It reminded me a bit of both The Good Place and Loki's TVA (Time Variant Authority). I really appreciated that Dream Central was fully fleshed out with staff, orientation, etc. I also liked seeing various Dream interactions between Grace and Michael, with Grace's old dress and dancing, etc. Then to have not only Grace's temp job...but Michael's back up family job...there was a lot going on, including a cross country train ride....and a meeting with Grace's Portland dwelling grandmother.

I loved the creativity and the excellent story telling. It was a big surprise to me. I even enjoyed Alura's fascination with pie! Cute, positive and fun. I think this was a positive departure from the Hallmark norm that I really appreciated and approved of. This is a recommendation from me, particularly for those who are dreamers.