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Jake Paltrow directs his sister Gwyneth and Martin Freeman in a sorely under seen effort from 2007.
The internet has opened up a whole new venue to find interesting and out of the way movies without the financial backing to support large advertising campaigns. Virtually any movie can find an audience, but this also leads to information overload; there are simply too many movies and not enough time. Unfortunately there are still very deserving films that slip through the cracks. The Good Night, written and directed by Jake Paltrow, went virtually unseen in theaters, but luckily it has begun to find an audience on DVD. Penelope Cruz as Martin Freeman's Dream Girl Gary, played by Martin Freeman, has a few problems. As a former pop star, he is now forced to write commercial music, completely limiting his ability to express himself creatively. He is also having serious relationship problems with Dora, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, his long-time girlfriend from his pop star days. All this would be mediated by the fact that Gary has just met his dream girl, played by Penelope Cruz, except she is literally the girl of his dreams; he can only be with her when sleeping. Danny Devito Teaches Lucid Dreaming Techniques In an attempt to live a more fulfilling dream life, Gary goes to lucid dreaming specialist Mel, played by the always enjoyable Danny Devito. The two of them form a peculiar bond as Gary attempts to live more and more in his dreams and less in his unfulfilling real life. Mel seems hesitant to be so enabling of Gary's obvious escapism and refusal to deal with his real life problem, yet he finds the incredibly rich dream world Gary inhabits to be vastly interesting. The movie also features Simon Pegg as Paul, Gary’s best friend. Pegg has been proving himself as quite the versatile actor, and he steals the scenes which he’s in. Paltrow's Dream World The movie can be almost overwhelmingly melancholic at times, using well placed comedic moments to break the moodiness. The dream sequences are entirely gorgeous, standing in stark contrast to the dull, mundane reality the characters inhabit. When Gary discovers that the girl of his dreams is real, it seems inevitable that he won’t find her quite as enchanting as the version of her which inhabits his dreams. The ending to the movie, though it would seem inevitable, still comes as a bit of a surprise, and manages to be sad and uplifting at the same time. The film finds itself perfectly balanced in its various aspects. Hopefully the audience the film has found on DVD will enable the first time writer/director Jake Paltrow to continue to find his beautiful, melancholic vision.
The copyright of the article Sleep to Dream, Dream to Live in Indie Movie DVDs is owned by Vance P. Reed. Permission to republish Sleep to Dream, Dream to Live in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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