La science des rêves 2006

Critics score:
71 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: As charming and inventive as Gondry's fanciful visions are, they aren't enough to substitute for the lack of an involving story. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: All of this sometimes feels just a bit self-indulgent, and more than a bit random -- but then again, isn't that exactly what dreams can be? Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's a tonic to see a film, however uneven, obsessed with the question of what young love is, exactly, while detailing the stupid stuff that makes people act like jerks over someone. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: Michel Gondry makes more interesting films when he's chasing through screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's playful thoughts than his own. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Science may be a little too out there for people used to linear movies. The story doesn't make much sense, but it's not supposed to any more than a dream does. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: The Science of Sleep is an interesting visual experiment that tries really hard to be something unique, but it just spins its flashy wheels and eventually goes nowhere. Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice: The hyperactive juvenile whimsy and the stoner dream theories are out of control -- and fascinatingly close to pathology. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: An exceedingly fanciful film that's both more provocative and less successful than the Carrey piece. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: Ultimately, The Science Of Sleep is about the dividing line between whimsy and simple immaturity. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: The film is wonderfully innovative. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It remains a testament to the triumphant nature of Gondry's imagination that reality in this movie feels less real than the fantasies. You're encouraged to mistake one for the other. In some circles, that's called cinema. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Nothing much happens, but a lot goes on. It perfectly captures the feeling of what it's like to be young, creative, lost, idealistic and maladjusted, and it recognizes the overlap between the urge to create things and the longing for love. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: In the end, after your time with it, you'll recall it with a smile, remembering its childish wonderment and mischievous sense of humor. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Considering how wacky this zig-zag movie often is, it's surprising to discover how touching it is, too. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: This determinedly nonlinear filmmaking tells the story more accurately than cinema verite ever could. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's all very cosmopolitan (the dialogue is English, French and Spanish), very independent, a wee bit juvenile and very confusing, of course. But The Science of Sleep is also remarkably magical and desperately romantic beneath it all. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The Science of Sleep is like a weird dream that tugs at the memory throughout the day with its intriguing, misshapen pieces. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The whimsy Gondry whips up soon goes wispy as we wait in vain for all this sweet-natured silliness to reveal a meaning that isn't transparently obvious. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: [Gondry's] passion for cinematic invention is giddy and palpable, with the rudimentary charms of fellow Frenchman and turn-of-the-century filmmaker Georges Melies. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The soul of Gondry's work, it seems to me, is neither its soaring flights of visual fancy nor its sometimes crude slapstick, but rather its pained understanding of a generation hopelessly tongue-tied when it comes to matters of the heart. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: To borrow one of Stephane's malapropisms, by the last half hour you feel positively schizometric, which I take it refers to that discombobulated state of being nowhere in more than one place at the same time. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: A charming, inventive, ambitious, surreal mess. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The movie plays like an exhausted hallucination, disjointed and frustrating, much of it owing to the lack of chemistry Gondry allows between his stars. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: What Eternal Sunshine did with magic and whimsy, The Science of Sleep accomplishes with confusion and pretentiousness. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The Science of Sleep is an odd combination of elements, a misty-eyed and even mystical romance with a core of painful emotional realism. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: To me, the movie feels like a small but ingeniously crafted gift, like the stuffed horse Stephane outfits with a tiny motor for his beloved's pleasure. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Pouring every impulse, inspiration and outlandish image at hand into his project, [Gondry] creates a dream world as visually delightful as it is merrily illogical. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Jason McBride, Globe and Mail: [Gondry] understands the bittersweet pleasures of unrequited love, how love unattained is always love untainted. Possibility perpetually exists. Dream logic? Perhaps. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: While this is obviously inspired stuff, and while Gondry's cardboard-and-scissors, pop-primitivist sensibilities result in some fetching hand-carved wonders, the movie itself is as oblivious and hermetic as its love struck, fantasy-prone hero. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: In the moment, Gondry and Bernal almost manage to give quirky a good name. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It is captivating, but confusing and a bit scattershot, like a patchwork quilt of idle thoughts, fantasies and reveries. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A whimsical, irrepressibly creative and playfully childlike confection. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Sweet, crazy, and tinged with sadness, Michel Gondry's new feature The Science of Sleep is a wondrous concoction. Read more