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.

Grace McMahon (Skyler Samuels) keeps dreaming about Michael Roy (Kapil Talwalkar), but she doesn't know him. Dream Central is where dreams are created from the person's memories. New dream associate Alura has made a mistake after mixing up two tapes. Grace meeting Michael could wreck the world somehow. The solution would require her to agree to forget him. Instead, she looks him up in the real world.

This Hallmark movie has a really interesting idea. I would like more details on that idea. I want them to state what would happen if the situation goes wrong. I need them to set out the stakes. I like the Alura character growth and she could have been the central character to save the world. A bit of reworking and this could be a really fun concept.

I've been enjoying the direction Hallmark has been going in, with inclusivity and creativity being at the forefront of their newer films, and this one is a perfect example.

Grace is a writer temping to pay the bills while waiting for one of her stories to be published. Roy is a musician whose father wants him to join the family business, and while they may or may not be destined to meet is unknown as their dream weaver, Alura, accidentally introduces them via their dreams, against the laws of dream and nature.

Which brings forth the Dream Council, a department just outside the human consciousness that is responsible for creating and distributing dreams.

Their dream weaver Alura is an adorable newbie who accidentally gets their "tapes switched" as the dream council seems to be stuck in 1985 and uses VHS to record peoples memories which the dream weavers watch to construct the dreams.

The wardrobe and cinematography deserve a shout out, as the cinematography jumps from reality to dream land and does some creative blurring to keep the focus on the characters, and the wardrobe for the Dream Council/Department makes sure the viewer knows they're dealing with an otherworldly presence.

A few things stood out; the "play free bird" comment when Micheal gets on stage made me laugh out loud. Grace and Micheal have chemistry and some of the moments and lines are totally swoon worthy; "if we never met, if our paths never crossed, part of me would always be looking for you" - beautiful sentiment.

I will say that even though Grace seeks Micheal out, jumping on a train with a man you just met regardless of him being in your dreams feels irresponsible, but Micheal is a perfect gentleman.

I like the relationship between sisters, Becky and Grace and watching Alura fall in love with pie and her "clients" is very sweet.

Everyone stands out on their own, there are no weak links. It is Hallmark, no one is winning an Oscar, but as an avid Hallmark fan, this film was refreshing and tugged on the heart strings just enough.

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 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.