This film is beautiful, intricate, fun - all at the same time. It hits the mind and pulls the heart strings on so many levels - while still managing to make a whole cinema audience laugh loudly, frequently and unreservedly. Michel Gondry has created something really wonderful here, the kind of film worth seeing again and again.
The Science of Sleep is trying to do something quite different to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but there's definitely something of the same feel. Certainly the level of exquisite artistry is comparable, but maybe it's also the amount of care and sincerity that has been invested in the inner lives of the film's characters.
This director/writer never sells anyone short, say, by using a character or situation just as a plot or artistic device. Instead the characters' growth and flow of ideas are what build the story, always treated with a touch that is loyal and genuine. You begin to feel loyal to them yourself, to have a sense of them as very real people in whose ultimate well-being you have a very involving stake.
That's all I really need say about the film, though I'd point out that the few negative comments I've seen below really weren't worth reading. Reservations I can understand (as everyone's different, right?) but these naysayers are clearly emotionally, intellectually and artistically stunted. Most likely they can't comprehend a work that doesn't fit their prescribed and limited framework for film appreciation - the sort which demands that progression be made through exactly the crude plot and character devisings which this film avoids. In fact, I don't think the Science of Sleep even studiously avoids them - it is simply a mile above such considerations. The film works on every level - and if you're even halfway to normal with your own emotional development you'll get what's good about this.
The Science of Sleep is trying to do something quite different to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but there's definitely something of the same feel. Certainly the level of exquisite artistry is comparable, but maybe it's also the amount of care and sincerity that has been invested in the inner lives of the film's characters.
This director/writer never sells anyone short, say, by using a character or situation just as a plot or artistic device. Instead the characters' growth and flow of ideas are what build the story, always treated with a touch that is loyal and genuine. You begin to feel loyal to them yourself, to have a sense of them as very real people in whose ultimate well-being you have a very involving stake.
That's all I really need say about the film, though I'd point out that the few negative comments I've seen below really weren't worth reading. Reservations I can understand (as everyone's different, right?) but these naysayers are clearly emotionally, intellectually and artistically stunted. Most likely they can't comprehend a work that doesn't fit their prescribed and limited framework for film appreciation - the sort which demands that progression be made through exactly the crude plot and character devisings which this film avoids. In fact, I don't think the Science of Sleep even studiously avoids them - it is simply a mile above such considerations. The film works on every level - and if you're even halfway to normal with your own emotional development you'll get what's good about this.