Dream Lover (1994)

Excellent adaptation.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Blistering performances.

I picked this to watch and was immediately caught up in the movie. The acting is top notch. Good to see Bess Armstrong and Larry Miller. Madchen Amick did a wonderful job playing the wife and mother.The movie belongs to James Spader. He sometimes smirks too much or acts like a smarty pants. Here he realistically plays a new husband and father gradually coming to terms with a bad situation.The plot is tight; it moves along and the characters are well written and keep our interest.I was wondering why James Spaders hair seemed painted or fakey or plastic-y. I thought I had forgotten what the hair styles back then looked like. There was a carnival setting that opened the movie and reappeared several more times before showing up at the end. I guess the carnival may be an attempt to show a chorus off to the side making commentary on the plot. It was interesting but seemed slightly off.

For you classical movie fans and fans of the Fifties music scene, this film Dream Lover will not contain a note of either Jeanette MacDonald's first film hit song from The Love Parade or will you hear Bobby Darin's hit from the Fifties, both entitled Dream Lover. Neither song while different in style is positive in nature and wouldn't be right in this very downer of a thriller.James Spader can't believe his luck in finding Madchen Amick, she's the perfect beautiful woman. He must feel like Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell Smith when they created Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science. This woman is an eleven plus and after a divorce from Bess Armstrong, Spader's in need of reassurance that he's still got it.They marry and have children, but gradually he starts noticing little things that she always has a perfect explanation, but rattle Spader beyond the point of endurance. When he starts investigating his wife, Spader finds a lot of things just don't add up.Dream Lover is a neat little thriller that will keep you guessing right to the end who is going to come out on top. In fact neither of them really do, or at least that's how I view the film.Spader, Amick and the rest of the cast respond well to writer/director Nicholas Kazan's script and guidance. When Spader starts investigating the past of his wife and finds she's just a down home girl from Texas instead of what she puts out, he meets up with William Shockley her old boy friend. His one scene in the film with Spader will leave an indelible impression.In fact Dream Lover will leave an indelible impression on you.

This rather slow romantic thriller reminds me a little of the old "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" show from the 1960s -- an engaging idea with little effort spent in polishing it up in a satisfying manner, as if the writers were working under a deadline.A rich architect (Spader) accidentally meets a ravishing young woman (Amick) at an art show. When I say "accidentally", I mean he spills wine on her new dress. Then they coincidentally bump into one another in the local supermarket and he takes her to dinner. On his first visit to her apartment they jump into bed. Okay for HIM, I suppose. After all, it's Madchen Amick, looking pale and delicious, full mouthed, and eyeball-coagulatingly gorgeous. But what about HER? I mean, whatever happened to family values? No matter. The couple are madly in love and they marry and have two children. Or do they? As one of the guests at a party remarks, the child doesn't look like Spader at all. Amick swoops around in slinky gowns and glamorous hair dos and a Rajah's fortune in jewels, and Spader labors away at the firm, bringing home the shekels to pay for his perfect family.About half-way through the film, things get a little twisted though. A series of the most unlikely coincidences pop up. Well, let me describe the first one. Spader and Amick are in a fancy restaurant in a city and an older woman approaches their table and says, "Why you're Sissy from Pruneville, Texas! I know you!" (Something like that anyway.) Later, as it turns out, this was no mistake in identity. She really IS that small-town girl. But, then, what is the likelihood of two people who from Pruneville, who already know one another, showing up at the same Japanese restaurant at the same time in the same big city? The likelihood is exactly one chance out of 8,502 to the seventh power.The same implausibility haunts the rest of what might have been turned into a film that really grabs you, something on the order of "Vertigo", if "Vertigo" had been shoddier and less demanding of its audience. In this case, we have -- here comes a spoiler -- we have Madchen Amick who has reinvented herself in order to marry a rich WASP who supports her while she indulges her sexual appetites and other sociopathic impulses. It takes Spader a couple of years to twig. When he finally penetrates all of her intrigues and confronts her, she taunts him until he belts her for the first and only time, which is what she's been waiting for.She calls in her psychiatrist and the police, exhibiting bruises that she seems to have caused herself, and has Spader committed to what is delicately called an "institution". (This is beginning to sound like MY marriage.) Boy, does the writing get sloppy here. Spader is taken by his keepers to a legal hearing at which all of his findings and suspicions are labeled delusions. And Spader is required to do what all sane people in the movies do under similar circumstances. Instead of calmly explaining his position, he goes berserk in court, begins shouting curses, tries to attack his wife, and is hauled away by his keepers.Actually, the psychiatric hospital is really a pretty nice place compared to some that I've worked in. This one must be private because it looks kind of like a resort spa. In any case, Spader enlists his first wife in a ploy to get Amick to visit him. She does, explaining that she plans to run off with one of her boyfriends, maybe taking the kids with her or possibly just "dumping them". He takes her to a secluded spot on the grounds. (The photography is quite good and the direction not bad.) There, alone, he sensibly explains to her that, since he is now legally insane, he can't be held responsible for anything he does. If he commits a crime, his defense is already prepared, and he'll be out in a year. It doesn't matter what the crime is. He could even strangle her. And he does. The end.What a waste of material. It's like a half-hour TV show drawn out to an hour and a half with a trick ending tacked on. It COULD have been turned into a much better movie without any loss to its thrill quotient. The reveal is far too sudden. And the climax looks like an idea someone dreamed up while stoned. And there are several "dream" interludes, the points of which managed to escape me. (My dreams are splotchy and not half so neatly organized.) Spader does fairly well in his role. He's best at looking quizzically at someone, at listening, not projecting rage. He did a fine job at posing as a cooperative listener in "Wolf". Madchen Amick is stunning but illustrates the limits of her range as an actress. Larry Williams, as a weak friend of Spader's, talks fast but comes across more as a self-indulgent idiot than a good pal.It's not an insulting film. It's just that it barely reaches the bar it set for itself, and that was pretty low to begin with. There are some good scenes in it, and the idea is solid, but this is a script that really did need a doctor.

A late night boredom trip became quite a spectacle. Not only did the performances from Madchen Amick and James Spader feel realistic and genuine, the actions of the two seemed based more in reality as opposed to the Hollywoodized version of revenge and anger. While some might call this senseless trash, I call this a spectacle of the human condition, one that portrays the hidden evils within every person. With a solid B-cast, this film was certainly worth the time and money put into it. Also, the ending proved to be one of the best `revenge of the cuckold scenes ever.'