Do not be mistaken! Although director Michel Gondry's latest film, The Science of Sleep, is essentially a patchwork of different elements, I am not saying this as a major form of criticism. With his third feature-length film, Gondry has also taken over writing duties, and in The Science of Sleep we find an incredibly personal film, rich with a mosaic of dream-like, surreal imagery. Shining moments of brilliance and truth emerge throughout this film, but the fact that the general sense of patchwork is often found in the story and characterizations makes it so that The Science of Sleep is a few steps away from being a masterpiece.
This was a refreshing, original, and entertaining film, but its flaws keep it a patchwork with bits of splendor; at least according to me and my friend Karelle, with whom I'd seen it.
At its heart, the story is quite simple. Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) leaves Mexico to live in Paris with his mother. He then meets Zoe (Emma de Caunes) and Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg); Stéphanie was just moving into the apartment next door. Jokingly, Zoé suggests that the similarities in their names could be some form of providence. Stéphane's new job, which his mother Christine (Miou-Miou) had found for him, is not at all what he was expecting. His coworkers and boss are obnoxious, with the exception of "everyman" Guy (Alain Chabat).
Throughout the film, the focus will be on Stéphane and Stéphanie's peculiar relationship, and how they have each set up their own emotional blocks, which make getting together with someone nearly impossible! That's it, the story is really quite simple. It's about difficult love, about adapting to a new environment. For the type of film this is, however, the story could not have been more complicated, and this is because the complexity comes in the extremely rich visual design elements, as well as Stéphane's abundant eccentricities, and to a lesser extent those of Stéphanie as well.
The strongest elements of the film, which serve to really elevate it, are the visual aspects, the originality of filmmaking, and the very French humor which seems to have been very well adapted such that a foreign (North American, English, etc) audience could appreciate it, and all these elements will make viewing this film a very refreshing experience, whether you enjoy it as a whole, or not. Stéphane is a dreamer, as we see right from the beginning of the film, and his dreams percolate into life, and elements of his daily experience seep into his dreams. The fuzziness of the boundary between dreams and reality in Stéphane are basically the cause of his eccentric behavior. Gondry has created an astonishing papier mâché fantasy world, where normal objects are made from soft materials such as felts, cardboard and paper. Other objects come to life, and even urban landscapes move in Stéphane's dream world.
The work from all the actors is very strong, particularly from Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Alain Chabat, who delightfully plays Stéphane's unlikely friend and advisor. The chemistry between Bernal and Gainsbourg did seem a little awkward at times, but perhaps this is more due to the script itself, as during most moments, they are able to switch from the "real" and "dream" versions of themselves very well, and throughout both actors convey an endearing sweetness.
I don't know if they will dub the moments of French dialogue for the English-speaking countries or if they will use subtitles (as we had, but for the English parts), but I found that the bilingual approach was really precious, and adds to the film's magic. I normally hate it when we see actors of a certain nationality speaking in English amongst themselves, since the accents can become very distracting in some situations, and it can also seem inauthentic, but here there are reasons when characters are speaking in English, and transitions between French and English are perhaps the most fluid aspects of the film.
Overall, I thought that The Science of Sleep was very good, but not terrific. I came out of the film thinking that I had seen something which contained real moments of brilliance, but I also felt that Gondry had gone too far into the realm of the absurd. It was difficult for me to relate to the character of Stéphane, because though he seemed very sweet, it was not possible to place his eccentricity in any kind of context. The kind of normal human moments are not very many, or they are not shown in a way that sets a foundation for the film. I thought that the perfect mix was established with Stéphanie, which is very impressive since it is usually the female characters that are mishandled in films. For me, however, I would say that Stéphane was slightly mishandled in the story. Despite this, very realistic moments of emotion emerged in certain scenes, and these certainly had a profound effect on me.
I had the feeling that there was an awkward self-consciousness in the film, almost as though there wasn't enough confidence in the work as it was being done. Maybe the filmmakers knew what they were doing, and knew what they saw in their work: they have truly stitched together moments of majesty, and though showing the seams maybe an artistic choice, perhaps here they were showing the seams for the wrong things.
The Science of Sleep is a strong follow-up to the brilliant The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and you will find several thematic and visual similarities.
A film can be made very nicely, or very sloppily, but how it is able to end its story is one of the most crucial elements to determining how good it is. There is no need to worry about The Science of Sleep, since the ending is splendid. The end of the film felt genuine, warm, and leaves the viewer with the impression that they have just seen something very special, even if it sometimes had the qualities of a collage.
