Dream Scenario

• Written and Directed by Kristoffer Borgli
• September 9, 2023 (TIFF) / November 10, 2023 (US)

A mild-mannered biology professor starts appearing in the dreams of people around the world.

I’m immediately tempted by ANY Nicolas Cage movie so checking out Dream Scenario was practically a given. As a film it examines unintended viral fame in both how the public reacts as well as to how the unexpectedly famous person is affected. It’s about that one weird thing that gets the public to embrace a stranger and their almost inevitable fall from grace when people start disliking that person that was once adored by the culture for things real and imagined. 

College professor Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) is simply living his mundane if not bland life when an article on a blog alerts the world that this man is quite literally the man of their dreams. It’s an interesting idea and a unique way to look at the concept of viral fame. Being  celebrity is certainly nothing Paul asked for. It was thrust upon him and it quickly goes to his head. We even get a self-serving statement from Paul to retain his fame when the public inevitably begins to go against him. Many aspects of what can happen are placed in the spotlight.

This takes aim at the media for pushing the positive and negative aspects of viral fame. They’re all positive about him when he’s the shiny new thing and when the public starts to turn they help to push that along as well by reporting incomplete information. The example of that is when he finds “LOSER” spray painted on the side of his car and flips out on the people who are photographing him. The following news reports mention his meltdown but fail to mention why he melted down. They are more interested in getting eyes on their story than in reporting the truth. 

The problem is that Paul is not that likable. I mean that in a sense you kind of want bad things to happen to him. He’s annoying and insecure to the point you’re wondering how he ever got married and had two kids. You WANT him to fail almost immediately. The flaws which cause his problems are obvious from the start as are the cracks in the marriage making his pre-fame situation of a stable marriage and good job feel improbable. He is needy, insecure, and believes life owes him more than he has. But yet he takes on life by going through the motions and doing little to get what he wants such as write his book on evolutionary biology. Instead he wants (but does not seek) shortcuts to get that done.

Paul plays at being nice but is easily offended when people make statements (unintentionally) that highlight his true self. Does writer/director Kristoffer Borgli have something against viral fame and those that get it? I am talking a serious axe to grind over the concept.

Paul’s home life is only okay. His children don’t have a very high opinion of him and actually find his presence a little unwanted. His wife is even a bit resentful. The dreams expose that. He never measures up to them, but they are emotionally trapped with Paul.

The longer Dream Scenario went on the more I was feeling like I just wanted Paul to go away. By the end of the movie Paul does not seem to have learned too much if anything. He’s grasping at the final minutes of his of his celebrity in a fashion he originally was averse towards. Paul did not necessarily need to learn a lesson and fix his life, but the character ended almost the same as he started. The only difference is he realized he lost his wife. 

Not that he had far to go to do that. Of all the people that dreamed about him she should’ve been one of them but based on a bit of technology developed because of what happened with Paul he had to force that to happen. Maybe him forcing things was part of this story’s point but that’s unclear. 

The ending is unsatisfying. It just, well, ends. Paul finally gets into his wife’s dreams through technology and fulfills her dream scenario (see what I did there?) and realizes it’s not real and floats away. And that’s the ending. I don’t need resolutions but I do need a hint at something. Sometimes the abrupt stop can work because there is enough beforehand to get an idea but not here.

Dream Scenario is an interesting idea. It takes an aspect of modern day society and finds a unique way to look at it. The problem is it’s just the character’s experiences and then it ends. There is no ultimate point to the story. Characters don’t change. And there is no ultimate commentary on the phenomenon. It’s just “This is what happens.”

As is often the case, the saving grace of this is Nicolas Cage. He’s always an interesting actor to watch whether the movie is good, bad, or mediocre. His Paul is a very restrained performance for him. Never does he go full over-the-top as one would expect. But Nicolas Cage is not nearly enough to make this a great film. Or even a very good film for the general audience.

For the hardcore Nicolas Cage fan Dream Scenario is probably a must see. For the general moviegoer this is an if you want. It’s an interesting idea that lacks a point or a moment that pulls it all together well. I found it okay but I’m not sure if other people will do the same.