BPL Movie Review: "Dream Scenario"

It's time to explore your dreams.

Dreams are a topic that has always fascinated me. The sheer randomness and madness behind what goes on in our minds during heavy sleep can make for a great conversation with any colleague. In fact, I am not afraid to admit that I have a dream diary. It has helped me understand my inner thoughts better and how they could be connected with one another. 

Now, imagine if you were having an average or a possibly forgettable dream, not a nightmare or a burst of ecstatic activity. Let’s say that you were walking through a dilapidated neighborhood and there was a mailman crying because he saw a walrus playing soccer with his nieces and nephews. Then, out of the blue, actor Nicolas Cage shows up and does nothing. He just stands there on the soccer field as if he belongs somewhere else. After a few minutes of awkwardly doing absolutely nothing, he becomes the referee for this soccer match. 

This is the premise for the movie Dream Scenario. Now, I hate to disappoint you, but this dream that I just shared does not appear in this movie. It was just a warm-up for what does unfold in this feature film. 

Cage takes on the role of Dr. Paul Matthews. This middle-aged, well-meaning father and husband teaches evolutionary biology at Osler University. He is balding and appears jaded about his life in general. Dr. Matthews seems to have a mundane schedule that is stuck on a standard loop. One day, he abruptly shows up in a bunch of people’s dreams, including his students and two daughters. 

Overnight, this ordinary man becomes a pop culture sensation. His continual presence in so many various dreams make him a celebrity where the fun and the attention never seem to get old. He is recognized worldwide. After a meeting with a public relations firm, Dr. Matthews is even dubbed the most interesting man in the world.

 Although he initially just appears in some of these dreams and wanders around, the excitement of celebrityhood does come with a price. Dr. Matthews suddenly lives in a glass house. He cannot avoid people talking about him or taking pictures of him. The safety and reputation of his family suffers from all the commotion. 

Then, these ongoing dreams take a dark turn. This professor’s harmless presence evolves into a nightmare. Students start reporting that he is attacking or terrorizing them in their dreams. One student ends up dreaming about getting strangled by Dr. Matthews in her apartment. Another student gets bludgeoned by his instructor in an academic building’s hallway when he is asleep one night. They start experiencing trauma whenever they are near him in real life. This poor guy is caught in this sudden crossfire and cannot escape it. 

Dream Scenario is very much a dark comedy. The dreams that some people share and discuss will elicit chuckles even as Dr. Matthews’s public image becomes tarnished. Some of them are cute while other dreams are risqué. More specifically, the core of this movie is a tragedy. This well-educated gentleman never desired and asked for all this fame and recognition. He definitely did not expect the consequential fallout to be so severe and merciless either. 

All he really wanted was to get some of his research published into a book one day. Students refuse to attend his class. A customer wants him to leave a diner as he innocently enjoys a meal. Even his daughter’s school bans him from attending a play that she stars in. What is even more heartbreaking is figuring out the best solution to survive this onslaught of negative publicity. 

So, such a twisted story makes me wonder what is the endgame that its Norwegian director, Kristoffer Borgli, wants to tell us. The purpose of the movie tends to float around like a moving target from one critical issue to another random but still pressing one. Even a topic as abstract as dreams needs guidelines so that the accompanying story can be fleshed out accordingly. 

The only silver lining is that the whirlwind controversy surrounding the main character leads to the creation of a cloud-shaped device called Norio, which you place around your wrist. It allows people to experience someone else’s dream. Even then, the scars of Dr. Matthews’s past can still be felt through this seemingly positive ripple effect. He goes from a social media phenomenon to the elephant in the room.

This subplot actually leads to another qualm that I did have with this film. Of course, it is very original to introduce an invention that lets people dive into another person’s dream, but Borgli could have just made a totally different, maybe even better movie about this groundbreaking technology. This premise would have been clearer and more precise than Dream Scenario. 

I am sure that the 60-year-old leading actor would have fit comfortably into this hypothetical movie if Borgli made a feature film about the Norio instead. Going back to Dream Scenario, Cage is understandably subdued throughout the movie. This movie is a good opportunity for the star of Mandy and Color Out of Space to practice restraint, for this approach is required if you are going to portray an ordinary protagonist. 

Now, there are a couple of scenes where he squeezes in one of his signature freak-outs or meltdowns. After he tries to reconcile with his students who keep having nightmares about him, he yells at them after he finds his car vandalized with the word, loser, spray-painted across the doors. Then, he shoots himself in the foot by recording himself giving a tearful, exaggerated apology to basically the whole world for perpetually showing up in their dreams. 

This impulsive decision greatly embarrasses his family and does not exonerate what he has done in so many different dreams. Even after he has lost what is most important to him such as his family and credibility, Dr. Matthews does achieve one pyrrhic victory, which is the publication of his thin book, I Am Your Nightmare. Cage glides through this pensive stage in his character’s life with a longing for a better, alternate reality. He still comprehends the point of this role, even if he is caught up in a muddled outcome. 

My main concern with Dream Scenario is that it bites off more than it can chew by juggling too many themes too quickly such as the interpretation of dreams, the TikTok era of social media, impossible expectations placed on some celebrities, and figuring out what you really want, no matter what life throws at you. This is why I spotted another possible story within this established feature film. 

Despite the small flaws in its narrative structure, Dream Scenario is still worth checking out, especially if you enjoy discussing the subconscious. A movie that is this bizarre and even unsettling is meat and potatoes for a star like Nicolas Cage who can take an everyday concept and mold it into something that appears quixotic. Devout fans of this actor should still have fun while immersing themselves in this landscape earmarked by fantasies and nightmares.

Dream Scenario premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September 2023 where it was a solid hit among audiences. It also screened at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival in October 2023.

In fact, a friend of mine, Justin Smith, at the last minute, managed to take a selfie of himself and Nicolas Cage strolling by one of the theatres in Toronto. I just hope that he did not have a nightmare about the Oscar-winning actor when he went to bed that night. 

Dream Scenario is available to borrow on DVD from the Jefferson County Library Cooperative, including all 16 active Birmingham Public Library locations.

Click here for a trailer for Dream Scenario. 

My buddy, Justin Smith, will always cherish this cool moment. 

By William Anthony | Librarian Ⅰ, Citizen Services Department, Central Library