Jim Sheridan
Dream House

THE REVIEW

The film boasts the presence of a director responsible for movies I had already had the chance to appreciate, such as “Brothers” and “In America”, and a trio of protagonists made up of Daniel Craig and the talented Naomi Watts and Rachel Weisz: usual actors, yes, but also the usual Hollywood thriller woven around the plot twist where the protagonist finds himself to be someone he is not, a psychopathic killer seems probable.

It's just a colossal stupidity, among the most vehement disappointments that have come my way recently along with “The Double”. A good direction alone, assuming that this is what we can talk about, is not enough to put together a film, like this one which is quite a glaring demonstration of the above; or like Fincher's remake of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”.

Already shortly after the initial sequences, in which a family with two little girls moves into a new house located in an isolated town, which would almost seem to channel the film towards the horror-thriller branch of “Cold Creek Manor” and similar, and the aforementioned plot twist regarding the identity of the father of the family, the film drags on like an oral exam where you haven't studied anything without the bell ringing.

The plot also tries a bit to captivate the viewer with who or what is in front; who the killer of the wife and the two little girls might be, but then you realize that it is a rather useless film with a pretentious script, which seems like a potpourri of mystery and between reality and dream, ghosts and humans; all, ultimately, entwined in the protagonist's mind. Ingredients that are also enticing but probably far too overused, and with practically nonexistent special effects and equally nonexistent chills.