In Dreams

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Oneiric cinema works best when supported by spooky camerawork and psychological tension; In Dreams succeeds with the former but achingly lacks the latter. Annette Bening stars as the New England mother and illustrator whose brain is filled with the psychotic future-flashes courtesy of Vivian (Robert Downey Jr.), a bad man who likes to dress as a woman and murder innocents. Clair's reality becomes increasingly opaque as Vivian's neurotic rapacity advances ever closer to her and her family, but cohesiveness of character or plot is not this film's concern. Darius Khondji's uncanny, brooding cinematography is the movie's finest aspect. In Dreams isn't quite serious enough to haunt your slumber; it isn't quite unpredictable enough to make you jump.