Cast: James Spader, Madchen Amick, Bess Armstrong, Larry Miller
Director: Nicholas Kazan
Producers: Lauren Lloyd, Wallis Nicita, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Screenplay: Nicholas Kazan
Cinematography: Jean-Yves Escoffier
Music: Christopher Young
U.S. Distributor: Gramercy Pictures
There are so many thrillers available with simple variations on the same basic plot that all it usually takes is a difference, however slight or unorthodox, to distinguish one. Basic Instinct, for example, although remarkably similar in many ways to Fatal Attraction and Jagged Edge, has a leg-crossing scene possessed by none of its antecedents. Dream Lover, while at first seemingly another in a long line of these "who/what is she really?" films, actually offers a bit more.
Dream Lover plays best to a viewer familiar with the genre, and who therefore knows what should happen -- or what they think should happen. The film has fun setting up stock situations, and even resolving some of them in the anticipated manner, before exploiting expectations by twisting a few plot threads in surprising directions. The ending is especially bold, not to mention satisfying.
James Spader -- he of the "boyish good looks" -- plays Ray Reardon, a bland sort of man on the lookout for the right woman so he can capture the American dream: a wife, a family, and a Volvo. Spader's best work may be behind him, and his performance here is on the uneven side, but he's generally convincing as the meek Ray, the kind of role he has been typecast into.
Madchen Amick (from Twin Peaks) is Lena, Dream Lover's vamping villainess. Despite a pleasing appearance, she often is lacking in the more substantial elements of the character. In a year featuring a spectacular turn by Linda Fiorentino in a similar role, Amick comes across as a weak impostor. The part of the femme fatale generally demands two outstanding qualities: beauty and presence. Amick too often is missing the second.
Lena first meets Ray at a mutual friend's party when he accidentally spills wine on her dress. She screams at him for a while, but when the two bump into each other days later in a grocery store, her demeanor has changed. Ray is suitably apologetic for the incident, and asks her out. After a sushi dinner and an awkward moment outside her apartment, it's goodnight. The next day, Ray not only gets beyond the front door, but into her bed. Cut to the wedding, and, predictably, the beginning of Ray's problems.
The second half of Dream Lover is significantly stronger than the opening. The setup is probably overlong, and it's up to the individual to determine whether the eventual payoff is worth it. Considering the story and characters, this movie is very much in the noir category, although Jean-Yves Escoffier's cinematography doesn't highlight darkness and shadow as much as one might expect.
Dream Lover is a classic example of a movie setting up its viewers. Half the fun lies in recognizing that at the end. Artsy dream interludes and some rather silly dialogue mar the production, but these things fade into near-obscurity in the face of the climax. Dream Lover will never be considered a classic, nor even a particularly memorable example of its genre, but that won't stop those who watch it from enjoying themselves -- even if that means playing into writer/director Nicholas Kazan's hands.
© 1994 James Berardinelli