Death Dreams

Pain and fear reflected in beautiful, dramatic close ups reminded me of some of the best Italian cinema of the 60's and 70's and yet the movie is unmistakable American. The seductive unpredictable style contributes to a constant state of dread. Marg Helgenberger gives a walloping performance of naked emotions without ever going over the top. Almost Italian yes but seasoned in Midwestern roots. Christopher Reeve is an astonishing surprise. The nuances of his villain, at least for three quarters of the film, are so beautifully drawn that I wonder why this film is not better known. "Death Dreams" subscribes to the smarter kind of Gothic thriller. Devoid of cheap shots and dressed up in witty dialogue and an elegant leisurely pace. Fionnula Flanagan and a titillating score complete this unexpected American dish sprinkled with exquisite Italian flavors.

That's why I couldn't find it. The Italian title of "Death Dreams" is (translated) "The Butterfly In The Lake" - Images of the anguishing story of death and life after death kept coming back to me without being able to put a name to those images. I remembered Christopher Reeve in a rather unusual against type kind of role - some consider it one of his best performances and I agree - But it is Marg Helgenberger (C.S.I) that dominates the film. The camera travels through her beautiful face and she's always compelling. She is a widow with a young daughter trying to rebuild her life with her new, wealthy husband (Reeve). We meet them during their first wedding anniversary party and something tell us that dark clouds are moving towards this, potentially, happy nest. I don't know how to explain it but a sense of dread took over me as if I was in a dream I couldn't control. And yet, everything looks so normal. The ending felt a bit rushed, dislocating, that's why I give it an 8 out of 10.

Crista Westfield (Marg Helgenberger) is the wife of Wall Street investment broker George (Christopher Reeve) living in Connecticutt with Jennii (Taylor Fry), the 7 year old daughter from Crista's first marriage. When Jennii is found drowned in their home pond, everyone assumes that it is an accident but after Crista has a car crash, where she is clinically dead for 6 minutes, she begins to have visions of Jennii. Dissatisfied with the doctors George takes her to, Crista seeks out Dr Margaret Neuberger (Fionnula Flanagan) in New York, who helps her discover what really happened.

Helgenberger is dressed in expensive clothes as a wealthy wife, in particular a purple velvet evening dress for her 1 year anniversary party, and at times she looks very beautiful, but at other times she is ravaged by director Martin Donovan's close-ups and unflattering lighting. She has a sex scene with George where the most attention is paid to her back, and she uses the remnants of a mid-western accent. When George finds Crista with Dr Neuberger and raves angrily, Helgenberger stands in a corner listening to him and breathing, and her reaction to a hostile defence attorney is to not give any eye contact and squirm in embarrassment. Although there are times when Crista is in psychological pain, Helgenberger never makes us feel that Crista is `mad' - we believe her belief.

The teleplay by Robert Glass, based on the novel by William Katz, has Dr Neuberger tell Crista that her soul has stayed with Jennii when Crista was clinically dead, which explains the connection, and Donovan's representation of Jennii with golden light, her distorted voice and the sound of wings is more tolerable than his grab bag of other tricks. We never do find out why Jennii is killed, apart from a vague reference to `spin control', and George being described as having a `pathological need to dominate'. Reeves' anger somewhat telegraphs the case to be made against George, but a response to Crista's `My husband has no reason to kill me' is Dr Neuberger's funny `Then he's a very unusual husband'.

Subjective camera, slow motion, tilted camera, quick pans, split screen, heartbeats on the soundtrack, and dissolves all draw attention to style and not the content. Flanagan's attempt to make Neuberger charmingly eccentric doesn't quite work, and the conclusion has a rather unsatisfying ambiguity.

This is a pretty good made for TV film. It's a ghost story of a woman, Christa, who married George and he adopted his wife's daughter, Jennie, (from a previous marriage) and the daughter drowns. After Jennie drowns, Christa sees Jennie's photo on a billboard and has a car wreck - killing her best friend in the car with her. Christa is under the care of a few psychiatrists for awhile. Christa starts to see her daughter more often, George wants to get Christa some additional mental health help. Another friend of Christa tells her of a psychiatrist who also believes in spirits and bids Christa to go see her. Christa and the physic psychiatrist ends up pressing charges of murder of Jennie against George - a courtroom drama follows. The questions are: Is Christa simply mentally unbalanced due to the loss of her daughter, friend and mother? Did George really kill Jennie or is he being framed?

I rather liked the film. It's something a little different than other ghost stories - and there isn't much 'horror' in the film. The film is a crime-thriller drama and not labeled as horror but easily fits into the paranormal horror genre.

Christopher Reeve is great in this one -great to see him in other projects. (R. I. P. Christopher - miss you). Marg Helgenberger was super good as well. In fact, the entire cast does a great job.

Worth watching if you like ghost stories and/or crime-thrillers.

7/10.

This story blows away half of the ghost stories on the big screen. Death Dreams is a book as well as a movie and both follow each other quite closely. It is hard for me to think that any fan of the ghost story genre would not have an interest in this. It is a superbly written, very unusual and intense story which probably would have done well on the big screen too.

The movie's tough to watch(as is the book to read) because of the subject matter but it does make me wonder why there's so many bad horrors that get released when there are material like this around.This story's got intensity, great talent in the acting department, twists and turns and genuine surprises and can be a bit frightening as well as intense. My thoughts are-if one likes a really engrossing psychological thriller/ghost story they should see this AND read the book.