Dream House plays like a horror for about 35 minutes. Will (Daniel Craig) quits his oppressive editing job in the city to be with his family full-time. He lives in a suburban Dream House with beautiful wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and two small girls. He loves his family. Yeah, yeah, get to the plot. The quiet home borders the woods. Night has fallen. Littlest girl spots a man at the back window. Dad convinces the family, including himself, it’s just a trick of a broken awning. In the morning, however, he finds footprints in the snow; he follows them around the house; the camera reconstructs the visions of the mystery man – the living room, the kitchen, then more intimate places; somebody has been spying on them. Creepy, huh? Then we learn there have been murders in the house. Creepier. The murders were of Libby and the girls five years ago. Huh? WTF?!
Dream House is one of those films that is really confusing for a while and makes no sense, but when everything is revealed, the viewer finally realizes it was confusing and made no sense. As I said, Dream House plays like a horror for about 35 minutes. Then they give away their ace: Daniel Craig is not Will Atenton, but instead Peter Ward, the mentally ill man sentenced for the murders of his wife and daughters five years previous. Oh well folks, we just ran out of horror elements. This film is now officially downgraded to “thriller.”
Was that a spoiler? If it was, I apologize. Truly. But you should know that despite the ghosts of a lingering murder, this isn’t a horror film and they gave that key plot away fairly early on. The best part of Dream House is not the mystery of the deaths, but the transformation that gets Will back to Peter. No matter what happened in the house, some part of Will/Peter still loves his wife and children, dearly, and the intense fabricated communication with the trio, who exist in his memory alone, is the only motivation he has. Deep, huh? Can’t say I was wild about Daniel Craig’s fleeting accent here, but his emotional work in Dream House is the best part of the film.
Naomi Watts shows up as an across-the-street neighbor who knew Peter the whole time. What is she doing in the film? What is her motivation? Why does her character care? Your guess is as good as mine. Do you like quality resolution in a film? Yes, then stay away. Dream House is a better study of Daniel Craig’s acting chops than anything else.
Rated PG-13, 92 Minutes
D: Jim Sheridan
W: David Loucka
Genre: Guess the proper reality
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Conspiracy theorists
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: People who wish to execute the mentally challenged
