Come True

Best dream sequences I've ever seen in video. Some bits along the way hint at the ending, but very discretely.

Slow moving, but definitely worth the time.

Come True is worth a watch. I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending but that's just my opinion. The story itself is engaging to watch. The atmospheric soundtrack brings a mysterious ambiance that keeps you focussed on the story. The sound was the best part of this movie. The acting wasn't bad even though not everybody were perfect. It's not really a movie I would recommend but it's good enough if you have nothing else to do and like mysteries with a pinch of sci-fi.

An insomniac student signs up for a sleep study, only to find her dreams mean more than she knew ...

Good performances in a story that reaches to another dimension in the exploration of character. The dreamscapes are macabre and well shot, and while the pace is patchy there is a moment of deep fear as the threat is fully revealed. The score is also interesting, except for ten minutes around the middle point when it seems to tread water just as the tension should be piled on.

A couple of points where credulity is stretched, but by the end I found myself having to rethink them because of the change in the logic of the story telling. There is a key to this, but I haven't figured out how far back the crucial change occurred. The director points to a Jungian framework, with captions naming four aspects of the psyche - the persona, anima and animus, the shadow, and the self. At the start we encounter the shadow, which is clearly part of a dream, but looking back it's unclear whether we touch base with reality at all - and so the heroine's odd domestic circumstances are never explained. There are a few more clues, like the change of eye colour, the disappearance of the other female volunteer, the simultaneity of the dreams, and some deep point about having sex with one's own opposite, but I'd have to watch more closely to piece it together.

The danger with hanging a story from a framework is that you lose touch with the character and drama. This does a good job, but I'd really have to trust the director's skill to commit to rewatching.

Overall: Ambitious, but I wasn't sure what it was offering me.

So the entire film is about this girl who almost ran away from home who enlists in a sleep study. They monitor her brainwaves on trippy CRT monitors from the 90s and transform them into images to see what she is dreaming about. More or less everything makes sense until the very end, when the spell is broken and you realize that it is all a pretentious movie with "a message" that you care nothing about at all. I don't want to spoil it, because many people seem to have enjoyed the dream mysticism and symbolism of which the film is full of. Myself, I was intrigued by the obvious plot and was severely disappointed by the ending.

All in all the acting is decent, the pacing is slow, but consistent and the dream sequences, even if they look like something made in a few days on a 3D designer, are pretty cool. What I disliked profoundly is the bait and switch at the end.

If you want to enjoy it, take it as a personal project of the writers to express something personal, like Phantasm was, and give it a try. Just know in advance that nothing truly scary or active will happen and that the film is slowly, very slowly, getting to its point by avoiding it most of the film.

This movie has several things going for it, but ultimately disappoints. The central idea is a good one, and the lead actor gives a strong performance. She's likely to become more well known soon. The cinematography is strong, and the score is good, as is the direction, which owes quite a bit to Kubrick. Where the movie fails is in the writing, and to a lesser extent in the performances of the supporting cast. The dialogue is sometimes trite, and the plot is thin with holes. The end is both predictable and yet somehow even more disappointing than one expects. I don't mean to be harsh; the movie is worth a look. Just be prepared to be let down a bit by it all, in the end.