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45 out of 57 people found the following review useful: Decent movie around a somewhat unsatisfying story., 2 September 2007 Author: CineCritic2517 from Netherlands
I'm still not completely sure what this movie was exactly about. The initial layer suggests a story about an insecure bloke who tries to escape his run aground life through lucid dreaming. Real life and the dream world coincide as he finds out that the woman he is pushing away from his life is actually the one he wants to stay with. People trying to dig beyond this layer have some difficulty. Not because this movie is especially deep but simply because there's not much beyond it period.Do movies have to be deep or insightful? Of course they don't. But this one to me suggested it may become that. And when it didn't, it left me feel a bit dissatisfied.With an interesting story nonetheless, solid acting throughout, some great jokes and appealing visuals this movie rises well above the average Hollywood production. What it simply lacks are some really poignant scenes and build up towards the end. But just like the main character Gary who never rises above himself, the movie doesn't either. But maybe that was the whole point.That said, there's absolutely no harm in bringing this one home for a view.7/10
42 out of 60 people found the following review useful: The Good Night, just a decent night at the movies, 1 February 2007 Author: sundevil27 from Salt Lake City, UT USA
Saw the world premiere showing of the Good Night at the Sundance Film Festival last week and have come to report back on my findings. Was really looking forward to this one, story sounded interesting in an Eternal Sunshine kinda way, and the cast is top notch. The Good Night stars Martin Freeman as former brit pop star Gary, who hasn't exactly been doing a whole lot since his famed band went on the skids. Gary lives a less then fulfilling life with his long time girlfriend Dora, played by the excellent Gywenth Paltrow, and keeps company with successful ex bandmate Paul, played by the hilarious Simon Pegg. Gary spends his days doing meaningless commercial gigs in which his creative talents are kept in check in order to create more familiar music that sounds like the theme from "Cheers". Understandably Gary needs an outlet from his less then stellar career and from his almost non-existent relationship with Dora. One night Garys finds that outlet in his dreams, more specifically in the perfect female form played by Penelope Cruz. Desperate to escape reality Gary finds himself wanting more to live in his sleeping life then in his real life and he finds an unusual guide in Mel, played by Danny Devito. Mel mentors Gary on this lucid dreaming and soon Gary finds himself mastering his dreams, but in reality his good nights are turning into bad days. Sounds interesting but does it work, well not so much. Much like a dream the story is scatter shot and incomplete. We only get a glimpse into the characters lives and as the story goes along we still don't have a lot of info here. Does Gary want to be a pop star again, is he jealous of the success of his friend, does he really care about his girlfriend - did he ever and whats so special about his dream girl? Gary is as lost in life as he is on the audience, he feels distant as do most of the characters here, aside from the amusing Paul. In the end this movie just doesn't quite work out, maybe it wasn't supposed just like a dream. All that being said its a nice first movie by Jake Paltrow, he's got a good vision and his effort here is obviously promising but frankly the story was beneath his directing talents. As for the actors, Martin Freeman, Gywenth, Devito - all very good work but again the story just is so-so and the acting can't save that. The Good Night, just a decent night at the movies
14 out of 21 people found the following review useful: Surrealist Dramedy Falls Way Short Due to a Muddy Execution, 6 May 2008 Author: Ed Uyeshima from San Francisco, CA, USA
It's pretty obvious that first-time director/screenwriter Jake Paltrow was heavily inspired by Michel Gondry's surreal, off-kilter work in "The Science of Sleep" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in making this downbeat 2007 dramedy. Barely in theaters before heading right to DVD, the film works on an intriguing (albeit unoriginal) premise but is then undermined by a muddy execution and unlikable characters despite some nice visuals. The plot concerns put-upon Gary, a TV commercial jingle writer who was once an '80's Britpop star. His professional life has become a drudge as he begrudgingly works with his best pal and former bandmate Paul, who has sold his soul to become a successful advertising executive. Meanwhile, life at home is no picnic since Gary has to suffer from the constant passive-aggressive derision of his frumpy, needling girlfriend Dora.Into this emotional void, Gary starts to have vivid dreams of a beautiful fantasy woman named Anna, who turns out to have a basis in reality. It's no wonder that Gary seeks the counsel of a "lucid dreaming" expert from New Jersey named Mel who helps him find ways to elongate the dreams for fear of having them evaporate entirely. Once all this is all established, Paltrow lets the film flail around in a series of frustrating scenes that have Gary turning more and more into an emotional zombie. Moreover, the marked contrast between Dora and Anna comes across as overstated with the result being complete indifference toward both women. Paltrow also uses a framing device of documentary-like testimonials from colleagues in Gary's past, a technique that doesn't make sense until the abrupt ending. None of the principal actors are terribly remarkable here except Simon Pegg ("Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz") who brings a much-needed energetic brio to the comically unsavory role of Paul. His cutting scenes with Gary are the best the movie offers.As Gary, Martin Freeman (BBC's "The Office", "Breaking and Entering") is likeably dweeby at first, though he doesn't make credible his past as a debauched rock star. Danny DeVito merely plays a plot device in his customary matter and not much more as Mel. No matter how gorgeous she is (and she truly is in this film), Penélope Cruz is given short shrift by the script, so much so that her character remains incoherent and incomplete. But ironically, a worse fate befalls the filmmaker's famous sister Gwyneth, who has been so deglamorized as Dora as to render her character nearly unsalvageable. Granted there are some funny, off-the-cuff bits like Dora reacting to Gary's maniacal installation of foam over the bedroom windows by asking if it comes in white or Gary inexplicably reading "The Idiot's Guide to Understanding Iraq" in bed, but there isn't enough such cleverness to sustain the film. At 93 minutes, it actually feels overlong. The 2008 DVD provides a rather inchoate commentary from Jake Paltrow that is not very insightful.
40 out of 73 people found the following review useful: Genuinely Special, 11 February 2007 Author: berns111 from United States
Saw this one.... loved it. Variety sums it up perfectly."Sweet dreams, indeed. As becalmed and refreshing as a good night's sleep, writer-director Jake Paltrow's first feature delves assuredly into the mind of a lost soul who literally encounters the woman of his dreams. Though its forays into the subconscious may strike more adventurous cinematic palettes as precious and unimaginative, few will be able to resist Martin Freeman's appealing lead turn or the wry Brit wit that gives this fanciful confection a robust comic core. Given the right push emphasizing its marquee names, "The Good Night" could hit sleeper status. Compared to David Lynch's convulsive dreamscapes and Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" - all films that seek to strand the viewer in an impenetrable chain of dream logic -- "The Good Night's" fascination with hallucination and reverie doesn't go much deeper than the surface level. Fortunately, it's an enchanting surface that doesn't wear out its welcome for a good 93 minutes.Puzzling mock-doc prologue introduces a trio of characters discussing the life of sad-sack musician Gary Sheller in tones of hushed regret. Of the three, only Paul ("Shaun of the Dead's" Simon Pegg) plays a part in the story that follows, set two years earlier.Gary (Freeman) is a thirtysomething Londoner now living in New York, a nice but hapless bloke with all the detritus of a movie midlife crisis. Since his band broke up seven years ago, he has eked out a living scoring TV commercials, to the increasing chagrin of his mildly depressive live-in girlfriend Dora (the helmer's sister, Gwyneth Paltrow). Even worse, Gary's friend and former bandmate, Paul, is doing quite well for himself in an advertising career.Given Dora's irritable demeanor and Gary's tendency to aggravate it by saying exactly the wrong thing, it's no surprise that their love life is mutually unsatisfying. So when Gary starts having recurring dreams about a beguiling mystery woman (Penelope Cruz) who seems to offer more of herself to him every night, they have a rejuvenating effect. Wanting more, he takes an active interest in lucid dreaming - the act of becoming aware of and even controlling one's dream state - getting all sorts of tips from a New Age-y, self-styled expert (an amusing Danny DeVito).Gary's growing obsession with manipulating his nocturnal entertainment - he sound-proofs his bedroom and gets cranky whenever he's awakened mid-dream - doesn't improve his relationship with Dora; somehow, even Paul's foolhardy dalliances in cybersex manage to widen the rift. Eventually Dora announces they need time apart and jets off to Venice, leaving Gary to indulge his fantasies to the fullest.But after a wide-awake Gary sees Anna's face plastered on the side of a bus, he soon learns she's a real-life model (whose actual name, Melodia, strikes a rather obvious note), and Paul all too conveniently books her for a commercial. The foundation for Gary's discovery and face-to-face meeting with his fantasy lover isn't particularly well-laid, but by this point, the script has set a fascinating structural dilemma for itself, and Gary and Melodia's waking interactions easily compel one's interest and anticipation.Subsequent plot turns are anything but predictable, and the tale begins to take on a quiet gravity as Gary's fantasy life is increasingly infected by his reality. The moving denouement is both a testament to the power and necessity of dreams and a bittersweet acknowledgment of their limitations.With so many first-time helmers lately piling on the flash and visual gimmickry, the measured pacing and almost crystalline purity of Jake Paltrow's direction can't help but come as a soothing relief. The film-making is arguably too tasteful at times; intriguing as they are, Gary's dream sequences are absent any real sense of mystery or danger, and the use of stately fade-ins and fade-outs as delineating markers leads to some rhythmic awkwardness. In "The Science of Sleep," dreams and reality blurred together inscrutably; here, they exist opaquely side-by-side.Best known Stateside for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and the BBC's "The Office," Freeman carries the movie in his sleep, so to speak, showing terrific leading-man chops in a delightfully shaggy, self-effacing role. Continuing her dowdy-brunette look from "Running With Scissors," Gwyneth Paltrow comes through with a prickly, witty characterization that, despite a maudlin streak, occasionally lets the sun peek through.Supporting perfs are similarly well handled. Looking as ravishing as she did in "Volver" (with no small help from Verity Hawkes' splendid costumes, including one striking white tux), Cruz breaks her so-called English-language curse with a role that requires her to be seductive and not much else. Needless to say, she acquits herself admirably. And Pegg, with his crack comic timing, pockets every other scene as Gary's lovable bastard of a best friend.Production design is aces, the predominantly gray scheme of Gary and Dora's dreary apartment providing a "Wizard of Oz"-like contrast with the vivid colors and textures of the film's dreamscape; Giles Nuttgen's cinematography astutely follows in kind. Alec Puro's unobtrusively melodic score, which incorporating a tender composition Gary writes late in the picture, plays an especially significant role.Gotham-set pic was largely filmed in London -- a disjunction that, given the film's Anglophilic bent, almost makes sense."
21 out of 38 people found the following review useful: Not bad, but victim to a classic blunder, 5 September 2007 Author: cody-shepherd from United States
Making a movie about dreams or dreaming is tough, and it shows in this one. The difficulty with dreams in any bit of fiction is that they can't be held accountable; that is, by definition, there isn't any kind of direct correspondence between dream occurrences and narrative significance. A dream (singular) here and there can enrich a narrative with symbolism, causality, subconscious, but when the dream becomes plural then almost universally a story starts to break down. Having gritted my teeth through movies like Waking Life and The Cell, to name a few, I've come to associate "dream" with "lazy" in cinema.That being said, I had to see what Simon Pegg and Martin Freeman would do in a movie together. And the bottom line is, due to these two guys, the movie is worth a watch. Don't may more than $4 to see it.What you get really is a movie without consequences. You have Martin Freeman obsessed with a dream character. OK, kind of interesting, but there's not enough dimension to his girlfriend (Paltrow), who just seems like a nag, or his friend/former bandmate (Pegg), who, granted, is extremely funny but ultimately without Pathos, to really make his dream obsession a truly engrossing psychological/sociological study.And again, what happens here is that the dream sequences, and even the obsession with them, because of the, by definition, incommensurable quality of dreams, their inability to be authentically expressed through proxy (language, film, journals, etc.), leave us as audience members bereft of any feeling of causality, arc, or direction.Also, as a sidenote, the pseudo-documentary format that the film opens with and halfheartedly maintains is confusing and ultimately misdirecting. It ends up looking like the mistake of a novice director.Martin Freeman performs his lines well, Pegg is funny, DeVito is a pleasing eccentric, and Paltrow isn't as annoying as she usually is (however Cruz is somewhat intolerable), so the movie is worth seeing once, if you've got nothing better to do.
26 out of 48 people found the following review useful: so unique, 31 August 2007 Author: rodeo111 from Prague
I'm an American living in Prague and was so moved to see this film. It builds with a steady, undying attention to the details of a relationship we don't normally comment on to an end that literally jolts you out of your seat. I haven't seen a film like this in a long while. It's stuck with me for days. Rarely do you see someone confront depression, the search for one's talent and a longing for something more in such a sophisticated form. It explores the human condition as movies once did. It makes you dream. The actors take on roles we have never seen them in. Danny DeVito as a destroyed man lost in his broken mind, Simon Pegg as a hilarious trouble maker, Gwyneth Paltrow as a brunette who's tired of her stagnant life, Penelope Cruz as a dream girl out of a European fantasy, michael gambon and jarvis cocker as guest narrators with a harsh wit and its star, the disappointed and fractured Martin Freeman lost in his dreams.
3 out of 5 people found the following review useful: What is the point of this story., 4 June 2009 Author: ngruber-1 from United States
It's a real bummer when you see the potential in a cast but the script doesn't live up to their abilities. The directing is adept, the camera-work is nice but ultimately I don't get anything out of this film. You have a character who escapes from his naggy one dimensional girlfriend to a model in some billboard prancing around on a beach. If we are going to get into why dreams are cool please spare us the old cliché of some hot chick on a beach. Clichés or not the biggest crime of the film is that it has no point. I am not invested int he flimsy characters and I don't buy the story. It's a true feat when we spend half of a film inside a character's head and learn almost nothing about him. Paltrow needs a lesson from Fellini, Bunuel and some others who know how to make a dream interesting...
3 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Interesting, but not groundbreaking, 20 February 2008 Author: glennsouthall from United Kingdom
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I think enough has been said about the strengths and weaknesses of this movie, so I'm not intentionally going to add to that. I just for a change want to give a simple and highly personal opinion as a viewer, looking for a nights entertainment with a new movie. I had never seen any trailers or read any articles on the movie so I had no idea what to expect, but how could I resist a movie with such an interesting blend of some top notch US/UK performers? But that was part of the problem that I'll come to later.Right from the outset I was disoriented. The context and frame of the story were laid out using an opening series of documentary style interviews with both real and fictional characters. Why? It is a fictional story, so adding Jarvis Cocker correctly billed as he is in real life threw me. It added nothing except confusion and took me a long time into the film to realise I was watching a completely fictional tale and no further real life characters were going to pop up.The storyline and performances were deliberately low key, in order to underscore and enhance the main theme, which was one of escape from tedium, routine and the commitment required in real life. Because of this it is easy to see how Martin Freeman was chosen for the central character as he is a master of the droll. But, not wanting to take anything away from any of the fine cast, this created an imbalance which played on my mind throughout. Martin Freeman is a good actor and perfect for the part, but would have thrived better if he had been supported by talented, yet less famous actors/actresses. As it was he was supported by actors with a much higher Hollywood profile, so I was always mindful of upstaging, even if not deliberate. As it turned out Gwynneth Paltrow, Simon Pegg and Danny DeVito managed to restrain their performances in keeping with the theme of the movie and in deference to Martin Freemans leading role. No easy job (especially for DeVito), but they managed it well in the end.The premise as it developed was interesting. Quite by accident, MF found the promise of a life within his dreams that he had always desired. But could he manage to control it to the extent that he could influence its outcome? Could he find a way that this dreamworld could become his new reality? Thereafter, the premise shifted to whether all of this "perfect fantasy" was in fact a better solution than the real world had to offer and at the end of that road, how would it change us as human beings? Interesting and challenging enough to entertain, no doubt. The outcome will surprise few, but satisfy many.Overall, I was entertained and felt that I had good value. I cannot recall a movie with precisely the same themes as this, however it does flirt outrageously with many other movies that weave reality with surreality, such as Eternal Sunshine (as one of the better examples) and because it does not explore any of it's unique aspects to any real depth, I feel it is impossible not to classify it in this genre.
An interesting insight into a depressed man, 9 October 2009 Author: jack_rocs_ur_world from Australia
I really like this film, OK it didn't quite have the plot 100% perfect and it got a little mucky. But I think that is good, because it had an interesting concept and it delivered on that concept enough to make me sit down after the credits started rolling and have a real think about it. That's what I look for in a movie and this one delivered.The movies main message is a man with a sad boring life going through a mid life crisis, trying to find an escape. He finds it in his dreams, now this is where the film gets me, because although I'm not depressed I too on many occasions I wish that I could go into a perfect world and never wake up. Now he must decide which one he wants, a real life or a dream world, this is where it gets a bit cliché but nothing you can't handle. Definatily a rental.
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Uninteresting and very boring, 23 July 2009 Author: collipal-1 from Argentina
What a big disappointment.But I had to expect it...the film The Good Night has an impressive cast but it was however kept "canned" for almost two years.Now,after its mediocre performance on various markets around the world,this uninteresting and very boring film was released on DVD in my country.The characters from this movie are superficial and this movie is composed by tedious scenes which lack of any energy or interest.The only thing which adds some points to this very poor movie are the performances from the previously mentioned cast,which in spite of dealing with bad material,can efficiently transmit to the spectator some of their respective talents,like humor (Martin Freeman and Simon Pegg),drama (Gwyneth Paltrow and Penélope Cruz) and indescribable presence (Danny DeVito and Michael Gambon).The Good Night was the first work as a director and screenwriter from Jake Paltrow (Gwyneth's brother),and although he could attract a very solid cast,he constructed a very weak screenplay while as a director,he could not find a good style,rhythm or tone for this movie.This may be a short commentary but I have already lost enough time with this movie,so as a final warning,I suggest you not to see it.
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