Reviews

The reason I am commenting is because I wanted to write something about this film and because the author of this article (http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=14806) has already expressed fairly accurately what I had in mind. I am in no way anything close to an authority on Michel Gondry's work (I've seen Eternal Sunshine...) but I haven't the faintest clue what music video the critic is citing (sorry not a Radiohead fan) - but we're supposed to be talking about the film. I not only agree with Mr. Bigger's proclamation about Science being the "most expressive, most imaginative... cinematic cogitation of romance, ever," but I'd like to see your middle finger, Mr. Bigger, and raise you a DIAF, and say that it is the most accurate description, much less movie, concerning dreams and the dreams state. I'd be surprised if Gondry had not done a fair amount of research concerning the common characteristics of dreams based on perception (memories) of the dreamer. The wonderfully thought out and developed abstractions of cinematography give each "point-of-view" the depth of characterization (extra credit to Gael Garcia Bernal for a believable performance) and plot that makes this artistic cinematic expression a very, very good movie. Every new "point-of-view" is like a nostalgic episode of something you remember from your childhood, only one from another form of consciousness. After reading several critiques of the film, it seems that the most commonly mistaken narrative critique concerning the plot is that Stephane at some points (or one) in the film awakens to actual reality and re-enter the dream world when he goes back to sleep. It is the very insistently humble opinion of this viewer that... *SPOILERS BELOW* ...the whole movie was also a whole dream, not the overlapping of dream and reality. The perception of awaking within a dream is not a milestone in film-making but Gondry uses this well to have a story that serves as a 'ground' for the plot and yet still be able yank the viewer's leash a little bit by having this 'reality' seamlessly transition into the next absurd imagery the writer wonderfully paints for us. The imagined love story that occurs in Stephane's head is as honest a portrayal of a love-stricken subconscious mind as I have ever seen. The obsession with a thought or person and having this thought pervade your unconscious mind while sleeping is a universal facet of the science of sleep, and Gondry has expressed this very intelligently. *END SPOILER* The outstanding performances given by the two lead actors (Bernal and Gainsbourg) should be credited as much to the actors as the director because the script is meaningless in a film such as this unless the actors are given the proper direction, and Gondry's ability to communicate his extraordinary vision shines through in the actors' performances. Although psychologically enduring at times (which isn't necessarily a minus), If someone were able to record the mental images of their dreams and make a film out of it, it wouldn't look too much different from The Science of Sleep (although probably not this well acted and directed).