The Science of Sleep (***1/4)

 ? Writer-director Michel Gondry’s follow-up feature to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind again uses bizarre, often-comical visuals to illustrate the psyche of its main character. In this case, he is a somewhat boyish aspiring graphic artist (Gael García Bernal) called Stéphane who has some trouble separating his dreams from his dull reality. Having just moved from Mexico to Paris to take what turns out to be a dud of a job, he finds both dreams and reality increasingly occupied by the girl next door in his apartment building, called Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Stéphanie embraces his quirky imagination, but will not actually embrace him.

+ As in Eternal Sunshine, Gondry, a noted video director, utilizes dazzling set designs. Stéphane dreams, or imagines, a television talk show in his mind with fancifully elaborate sets and absurd goings-on. Incorporating romantic desire and comedy without quite being a romantic comedy, Gondry’s Franglais-language film seems to depict the messiness of typical relationships, even if Bernal’s Stéphane is a far-from-typical character. At first he’s not sure if he likes Stéphanie’s friend better, and his attempts to woo her are awkward, if sincere. Gainsbourg is the kind of cute you don’t see in many Hollywood movies. Stringy-haired and not noticeably made up, she looks exactly as her down-to-earth character ought to.

- I suspect many people will tire of all the dream sequences and just want Gondry to just get on with the story. The story itself is fairly pedestrian, lacking the clever sci-fi element that made Eternal Sunshine my favorite movie of 2004.

= ***1/4 I found this movie largely charming and identified with Stéphane’s desire for the person who seems most to understand him. However, I think some people will either dislike Stéphane’s quasi-wimpy character or be annoyed with all the cross-cutting between the dream and fantasy sequences and the “regular” ones. Your reaction to Eternal Sunshine (if you saw it) is probably a good guide, except that this is not quite as good.

IMDb link