The Good Night

The Good Night (2007)

Gwyneth's brother directs a curious but strained movie featuring both Gwyneth Paltrow as the real world lead and Penelope Cruz as some kind of vixen of the lead men's dreams. Now you might wonder what leading man Martin Freeman has wrong with him that he gets to sleep with his wife, played by Gwyneth, and yet he dreams of this other, Latina, woman. This is so filled with simplistic male fantasy, with stereotypes of ethnic types and gender roles, it's sometimes painful.

Most of the time you can, hopefully, gloss over this and see pure cleverness (in the footsteps of The Science of Sleep 2006) and layers of reality (a pale version of any Kaufman film like Eternal Sunshine (2004) or the more recent Synecdoche, New York). In fact, you might see the use of the woman's face in advertising as an echo of Red (1994). I guess I'm struggling to find the originality here, which I'm sure is meant to hold it all together.

Martin Freeman is likable but a little milquetoast for me, as the locus of the whole movie. Cruz is a relief in leather (the white fur on the beach scenes are total gag me clichés, even as clichéd dreams). I rather like Paltrow the sister as an actress when she is the normal young woman, which she is, but it does force the script to rise up and make their normal coupleness vivid, or trenchant, or comic. It is only slightly two of these. The fourth main character in spurts, besides the caricature that is Danny DeVito, is Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead fame), who is really a great presence, stealing his scenes.

Do I say see this movie? Only if there are some aspects here, and some influences, that are up your alley. It's not horrible at all, a kind of back-handed something to say without just saying it tries too hard.

The idea is interesting enough. A musician in his thirties suffers from a major dip in his career and his relationship. But instead of addressing these problems, and have a serious talk with his girlfriend, the main character is more interested in explaining his childish dreams of a hot brunette. I didn't feel gripped for one minute by the story. And at the end, we are supposed to believe that Gary has surmounted his problems because the dreamgirl has said she for one believes in him. He composes a piano tune, gets one more chance from his girlfriend, and that's that. By the way, why has Paltrow used the documentary form? Was there anything to make a documentary about? The guy broke his leg, for heaven's sake. That's not to say there's nothing enjoyable about this film, but it's very little. It's okay if director's debut doesn't smash box office records or win three Palms in Venice. But Paltrow should dig deeper into his subject before making any other movie at all. No matter how good your cast is (and it's pretty decent), without good ideas, any film is bound to disappoint.

It is probably wise to take it easy on first venture by writer/director personas who probably would not have had their initial film see the light of day (or dark of theater) were it not for the connections of a famous show biz family. But Jake Paltrow did indeed achieve this goal so with the idea in mind that this is an initial outing so its best to look for the reasons this little film works and the reasons it could be better.

Gary Shaller (Martin Freeman) is an artist on the skids: he has a history of being a successful songwriter/musician but now is woefully stuck writing asinine jingles for second rate TV shows. His home life is no better as his wife Dora (Gweneth Paltrow) is a nagging discontent whiner. And he is now thirty-four years old with little hope for change. All of this is brought into clear focus by the quite opposite life of his best friend Paul (Simon Pegg) who seems to have it all right. Gary encounters dream whisperer Mel (Danny DeVito) who introduces him to Lucid Dreaming - and Gary somnolently discovers the beautiful, smart, sexy Anna (Penelope Cruz), the woman of his 'dreams' who crosses over being imagined and being real - and who adores Gary. And this discovery and the manner in which Gary deals with it forms the solution of the story.

The idea of lucid dreaming has been used before (Inception, The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine, etc), but the concept is strong enough that Jake Paltrow's offering of his version is not a problem. Many parts of the film are sweet, but in general it drags and refuses to flesh out the characters enough to make us really care. But as a story about choosing between dream life and real life, a bit of Shakespeare would help: 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.'

Grady Harp

It's pretty obvious that first-time director/screenwriter Jake Paltrow was heavily inspired by Michel Gondry's surreal, off-kilter work in "The Science of Sleep" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in making this downbeat 2007 dramedy. Barely in theaters before heading right to DVD, the film works on an intriguing (albeit unoriginal) premise but is then undermined by a muddy execution and unlikable characters despite some nice visuals. The plot concerns put-upon Gary, a TV commercial jingle writer who was once an '80's Britpop star. His professional life has become a drudge as he begrudgingly works with his best pal and former bandmate Paul, who has sold his soul to become a successful advertising executive. Meanwhile, life at home is no picnic since Gary has to suffer from the constant passive-aggressive derision of his frumpy, needling girlfriend Dora.

Into this emotional void, Gary starts to have vivid dreams of a beautiful fantasy woman named Anna, who turns out to have a basis in reality. It's no wonder that Gary seeks the counsel of a "lucid dreaming" expert from New Jersey named Mel who helps him find ways to elongate the dreams for fear of having them evaporate entirely. Once all this is all established, Paltrow lets the film flail around in a series of frustrating scenes that have Gary turning more and more into an emotional zombie. Moreover, the marked contrast between Dora and Anna comes across as overstated with the result being complete indifference toward both women. Paltrow also uses a framing device of documentary-like testimonials from colleagues in Gary's past, a technique that doesn't make sense until the abrupt ending. None of the principal actors are terribly remarkable here except Simon Pegg ("Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz") who brings a much-needed energetic brio to the comically unsavory role of Paul. His cutting scenes with Gary are the best the movie offers.

As Gary, Martin Freeman (BBC's "The Office", "Breaking and Entering") is likeably dweeby at first, though he doesn't make credible his past as a debauched rock star. Danny DeVito merely plays a plot device in his customary matter and not much more as Mel. No matter how gorgeous she is (and she truly is in this film), Penélope Cruz is given short shrift by the script, so much so that her character remains incoherent and incomplete. But ironically, a worse fate befalls the filmmaker's famous sister Gwyneth, who has been so deglamorized as Dora as to render her character nearly unsalvageable. Granted there are some funny, off-the-cuff bits like Dora reacting to Gary's maniacal installation of foam over the bedroom windows by asking if it comes in white or Gary inexplicably reading "The Idiot's Guide to Understanding Iraq" in bed, but there isn't enough such cleverness to sustain the film. At 93 minutes, it actually feels overlong. The 2008 DVD provides a rather inchoate commentary from Jake Paltrow that is not very insightful.

I'm still not completely sure what this movie was exactly about. The initial layer suggests a story about an insecure bloke who tries to escape his run aground life through lucid dreaming. Real life and the dream world coincide as he finds out that the woman he is pushing away from his life is actually the one he wants to stay with. People trying to dig beyond this layer have some difficulty. Not because this movie is especially deep but simply because there's not much beyond it period.

Do movies have to be deep or insightful? Of course they don't. But this one to me suggested it may become that. And when it didn't, it left me feel a bit dissatisfied.

With an interesting story nonetheless, solid acting throughout, some great jokes and appealing visuals this movie rises well above the average Hollywood production. What it simply lacks are some really poignant scenes and build up towards the end. But just like the main character Gary who never rises above himself, the movie doesn't either. But maybe that was the whole point.

That said, there's absolutely no harm in bringing this one home for a view.

7/10