When Dream House was first announced it seemed like a project destined for success. Acclaimed director Jim Sheridan was at the helm, along with an all-star cast that included Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, and Rachel Weisz. Unfortunately, not even a cast of this caliber could save the final product from being a poor mix of movie genres and clichés.
The film centers on Will Atenton (Daniel Craig), who quits his job to spend more time with his family at a newly purchased “Dream House” in a quite suburb. Will barely gets settled in when he learns that the house was previously owned by a man who killed his own wife and children. The new family starts seeing someone hanging outside of the house at night and Will believes it to be the previous owner. While I’ll stop the synopsis here to avoid spoilers, the trailer gave away a significant portion of the story and is likely to lessen the impact of any plot twists.
There are numerous issues with Dream House, but the biggest problem is that it doesn’t know what type of movie it wants to be. The first five minutes feels like it's right out of a Christmas movie, with a holiday theme and snow fall included. Of course, it was meant to make the future events more shocking, but it feels oddly out of place and you’ll find scenes like that throughout the movie. We get bits of a psychological thriller, murder mystery, satanic cult movie, and haunted house movie, but none of it mixes in well.
Most people will watch the film and say that it isn’t a ghost movie, but there are scenes that can only be explained by supernatural elements. These small parts make no sense in a movie that mostly plays like a straight psychological thriller. I understand that there were problems during the making of this film, including possible creative differences between the director and the studio. It’s apparent that different creative forces were moving in opposite directions and we aren’t seeing one cohesive vision for what this film was supposed to be.
This movie may not have been a success, but the casual moviegoer may enjoy the twists and turns from clearly talented actors. Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, and Rachel Weisz give the best performance possible for what they are working with. They hold your interest, where less talented actors may have made the entire movie a disaster. I’d say that Dream House is on par with a TV movie thriller. There isn’t anything that you haven’t seen before and it isn’t done exceedingly well, but I know people who would watch this and see it as entertaining.
Dream House was recently released on Blu-ray in a combo pack, so you’ll also get a DVD and digital copy of the film. Jim Sheridan didn’t want his name on the film and main actors didn’t want to do any press events for the film after seeing the final cut. For this reason, there is no commentary and only a few short featurettes.
Most people will look at Dream House as a missed opportunity. A-list actors rarely jump into genre territory, and when they do, you hope for the best. In this case we get a movie that clearly went off the rails somewhere in the development process and the director and actors were stuck along for the ride.
Film Score: 1.5/5 Disc Score: 2/5
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