Film Review - Dream Scenario (2023)

Kelaru & Fulton rating: ★★★★

Runtime: 1 hrs 42 mins

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Nicolas Cage has had quite a varied career, to say the least. He’s an incredibly prolific actor, but his filmography is a rollercoaster of highs and lows, sometimes twice within the same decade. My opinion of him has resembled a true love-hate relationship. I loved him in earlier roles like Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation, and Lord of War, but disliked his performances in Ghost Rider, Bangkok Dangerous, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Allegedly, his personal financial troubles played a part in this inconsistency. The IRS pursued him for $6.2 million in unpaid taxes, and to pay it back, he had to take on a number of forgettable projects.

In 2022, Cage admitted that all his debts had been cleared and that he planned to be more selective with his roles moving forward. His recent choices show that shift. Films like Renfield, Pig, The Surfer and Dream Scenario remind us just how strong an actor he can be, especially when paired with the right script.

Dream Scenario is exactly the kind of independent film that captures the spirit of thoughtful, daring cinema. It is a low-budget dark comedy with a clever premise, solid direction, and a lot of subtext. It’s also simply fun to watch.

The story follows Paul Matthews, a quiet biology teacher who suddenly begins appearing in people’s dreams. He doesn’t interact, speak, or interfere in these dreams, he just shows up and walks around. In real life, Paul is a mild-mannered introvert, happily obscure, and content in his quiet routine. His wife and two daughters share his modest worldview. He is morally upright, the kind of man who would be horrified at the thought of breaking a rule or stepping out of line. At the same time, he is the kind of person who would be the first to be ridiculed or ignored if he ever dared to disrupt the status quo.

When Paul unexpectedly becomes famous due to his strange dream appearances, it turns his life upside down. At first, the attention is bewildering but benign. Soon, though, the fame spirals out of control and becomes something much darker. This shift affects not only Paul but his entire family, pulling them out of their sheltered life and into the glare of public scrutiny.

The film is ultimately about how fame distorts identity, and how a person’s image in the public eye can overpower who they actually are. Paul is forced to confront the reality that if he tries to benefit from this fame, he risks losing everything that defines him: his honesty, his integrity and his ethical sense of self. For someone so deeply rooted in decency, trying to balance shallow public adoration with quiet family values proves impossible.

And perhaps that is the film’s central thesis. Maybe those two worlds—celebrity and normalcy—are fundamentally incompatible. Dream Scenario doesn’t push that idea too hard, but instead lets us watch the slow, surreal unraveling of a man who simply wanted to be left alone.

It’s a tough situation to witness, but a very fine film to watch.