The Dream Catcher

I was very enthusiastic because the trailer was promising, rich in elements that often appeal to me: the road, life, encounters, emotion. Finally, although the film is very beautiful to watch, with very noble road-movie settings, the story didn't really move me. I had a hard time finding the characters endearing, I think the script doesn't nourish them enough. The dream catcher theme is very little explored while there was a lot to show in that symbolisme In addition, the action is very limited, even non-existent, which makes a double effect of flatness. Too bad because this film could certainly have been much more than that. .

I saw this movie in the bin at my local library and thought it was about the Indian "Dream Catcher" ornament. I liked the theme of lost boys, traveling across the landscape, etc. It was a pleasant surprise. Clearly a low budget movie, but they can make for great cinema because of the love effort to make a story come alive. Usually movies like these have a team effort to produce the vision…in short, it's all about passion. The acting of both male leads worked really well.

Maurice Compte who played Freddy stayed in character as a gloomy young man holding all his pain inside. It is hard for an actor to play this type of character so consistently. His facial expressions were money and he had a look perfect for the killer type in a movie but he never really exploded which made me hang on with him through his journey. Paddy Connor's character has similar issues but instead of going inward, Albert is a young boy who lives in the moment. He can't stop, rest, or feel…he just keeps moving forward, chatting nonstop. I've worked with troubled boys in a minimal security home and actually worked with a boy who was very similar to Albert. Paddy Conner nailed this character—totally believable.

Rent, buy, or borrow this movie. Too bad it didn't get marketed like it was should have. A movie like this just goes to show us all that great films are sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be seen.

Following the screening of this film at the Minneapolis International Film Festival, Ed Radtke, M.S. Nieson, and one of the film's coordinators spoke about the film and answered any questions the audience had. When asked a question about distribution, Radtke unfortunately answered with details about distributors' unwillingness to release a film because it may not be the easiest film to market. That is a shame because this film, the Emerging Filmmaker Competition Grand Prize Winner for Best Narrative Feature, may not be seen by American audiences.

"The Dream Catcher" is a film masterfully shot by the hand of up-and-coming cinematographer Terry Stacey in the vision of writer/director Ed Radtke. Their collaborative vision takes the form of a thoughtful and affecting piece about two young hitchhikers who have taken to the road to escape their individual lives. In doing so, their paths cross, and they eventually decide to take to the road together, although Freddy does so quite reluctantly. The two are masterfully contrasted. Freddy is stoic and a thoughtful, some-time thief, while Albert is talkative and an unremorseful kleptomaniac. Both come from similar backgrounds, and their journey never stray from paths deeply rooted in realism.

This film possesses a quality rarely found in studio films. The characters are tragically real, the direction surprisingly adept, and the cinematography has a quality rarely found on a movie with such a low budget. "The Dream Catcher" is a film that, if you have the chance to see (or even have the most minute chance of affecting the possible distribution of this film in any vein), you should see because it has heart not often found in Hollywood cinema.

What is amazing about this movie is its sensitivity, its patience for nuance, its willingness to tolerate silences, those pauses in conversation when the real communication happens.... We see the characters' faces, the subtle shifts in their expression; we see little details such as the streaks of raindrops on a car window, the little details that make up the fabric of the characters' lives. We listen to their conversations, conversations that develop gradually and resolve not in some punchline but in an open-ended yet meaningful manner. We see cornfields and average American neighborhoods, Midwestern ones on a cloudy day, and gas stations, and diners, and truck-stop restrooms, the kinds of things one normally only sees in real life but not in a movie. We hear the earthy talk of the typical American teenager; we witness the embarrassing sexual bragging of unattractive characters; we witness the warm and peace-pervaded family life on an American Indian reservation: everything in this movie is presented with a subdued, almost documentary-style realism and is yet richly, poetically textured in a way that only a highly artistic feature film, rather than an actual documentary, would typically be. The movie has a European quality about it in its quiet, sensitive poetry, and yet, it is a thoroughly American film that presents Amerian life unmasked, without the typical clichés and packaging in which American life is frequently presented in the media. This film is a must-see.

A really touching character driven roadmovie, with excellent performances by the two main characters (especially the youngest one).

I can honestly say that this is one of my top five favourite movies. Too bad I only got the chance to see it once. If you get the chance, don't miss it! This movie will stay with you for days after seeing it. Nevermind all the meaningless hollywood flicks, THIS is what movies are all about.