DREAMS

Dreams may feature a strong lead performance from Jessica Chastain, who is incapable of delivering a subpar performance, though the direction that Michel Franco takes the film’s narrative not only cheapens the more profound thematic exploration that he started in the first two acts, but creates a dangerous political statement that is not needed in today’s world.

Jessica Chastain has always been an incredible actress, finally winning her long overdue Academy Award for 2021’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Since then, Chastain has been all over the place with her roles following her big win, with films like the chilling Netflix true crime drama The Good Nurse, the misfire of The 355 which should have been a bad ass female action flick, and the film that no one was aware even got released: Mother’s Instinct. One film during her post Oscar run, while released to little pomp and circumstance, showcased Chastain as the talented actress she is and allowed her to shine brightly in: Michel Franco’s Memory, a stirring drama about the relationship between Chastain’s social worker and Peter Sarsgaard’s Saul, a man with early onset dementia. It was an emotionally challenging but brilliantly acted film with a strong direction from Franco, which made the announcement of him and Chastain reteaming for his next film immediately enticing. Sadly, his latest film Dreams, despite a great as always Chastain, is a far cry from the intelligence of Memory, turning a thoughtful exploration of class, immigration and art into a shocking Lifetime-esque thriller that devalues everything the film was attempting to say in its first two acts.

It’s really hard to review a performance by Chastain, as she simply does not have it in her to give a bad performance, even when she is in a bad film but instead never fails to impress. Chastain easily captures the complexities of Jennifer, a wealthy young woman concerned with her image of being seen with an illegal immigrant, but undeniably pulled to the talented and handsome Fernando. There is a grace and elegance Chastain brings to the character, evoking Jennifer’s passion for supporting the arts and as the intoxicating feeling of a woman lost in the high of her forbidden romance, but she also finds an unhealthy obsession with control as Jennifer wants Fernando to be in America on her terms, not of his own doing. Chastain single handedly helps to build Franco’s themes of the upper class’s control of the arts, the treatment of invisible people in modern America and cross-culture borders, becoming the film’s strongest asset before the story causes it to all come crumbling down.

While there are few actors who can match the power of any performance Chastain has given during her career, the supporting cast of Dreams is good. Isaac Hernández carries himself beautifully during the dance sequences as Fernando, capturing that truly unparalleled talent that has made Fernando the attention of not only Jennifer, but of the San Francisco ballet company, at the same time as finding an honesty in this young man feeling trapped by everything in life. The moments of joy he brings to the film feel genuine, though when the film moves into its darker dramatic segments he is more noticeably outside of his depth while sharing the screen with the powerhouse that is Chastain. Rupert Friend and Marshall Bell both capture the elitist and blinding privilege of Jennifer’s brother and father respectively, not only adding to the debate around class and invisible people developed by the screenplay, but acting as a strong mirror for the audience to view Jennifer through as while she acts like she is different from her family, there are unsettling similarities in the way she treats Fernando.

Given the erotic nature of the film, and that of Jennifer and Fernando’s relationship, it’s surprising how much Franco strives to make this film feel emotionless. Yes, given the direction he takes the story in the final act, it’s important that he prevents Jennifer and Fernando from being star-crossed lovers to show that Fernando is more of a project that Jennifer can fixate her time on, but there is no notion of any sort of emotional connection between the two or even passion during their steamy sexual encounters. While purposeful, it makes it truly hard for any emotional connection to be created with the story for viewers, which only sets up the out of left field final act of the film for complete failure.

With the themes Franco is working with, there is no surprise that Jennifer and Fernando do not have a happy ending, or even a remotely positive one, but nothing can prepare audiences for where Franco takes the film’s narrative. What starts off as a nuanced take down of the white saviour figure, showing it as a controlling and toxic force in the life of a young man trying to follow his dreams, Franco flips Jennifer into the victim that despite her deplorable actions in what leads to that twist, will without question have the audience turn on Fernando and creates a far more concerning and most likely unintentional political statement by the film. Disturbing barely scratches the surface of where the story goes, and frankly the male gaze that Franco writes the final act with is revolting, leading to one of the most tone deaf endings of any film in recent years. It is all the more problematic given the current political temperature in the United States and the actions of ICE towards deportations, that a Mexican writer and director would choose to add fuel to the fire that actually helps to build the cast to support the appalling actions of ICE to keep the dangerous immigrants out of the United States.

While the real world political context that this film would be released during could not have been foreseen, as we are living in unprecedented times, it is hard to believe that there was no pause taken at how dangerous its ending could be perceived as. What Michel Franco does in his latest film, regardless of stripping the film of any emotional weight to sell the film’s central romance and make the story believable, is reckless storytelling that ends up victimizing the class of individuals that deserves advocating for. Save for Jessica Chastain who never falters in a strong performance that captures the nuances of the thematic exploration of the film’s first two acts with a grace and chilling truth, nothing can prepare viewers for the shocking, disturbing and self-imploding final act of Dreams that is not only in poor taste, but dangerously undoes that intentions of the exploration of class and immigration that the film sets out to explore.