Yesterday's Dream

Much like the song "My Immortal" by Evanescence, "Yesterday's Dream" touches on the pain suffered not by losing one you love, but the inability to let them go.

When Phil's wife, Emily, is killed in a car accident, Phil becomes haunted by Emily's memory, to the point where he brings her back into his life with drug induced hallucinations. He fights with his own grip on reality, but sinks further into the fake world he's created where Emily is still alive and they are together.

The film touches on the agony of being haunted by a memory - trapped in a moment in the past, so unable to move forward.

The film is black and white when Phil is 'sober', showing the dull and emptiness of his life. But when Phil is high and seeing Emily, the film is in colour, but lit in dull yellows, giving it a dream-like quality, but also a fake happiness with this 'false' sunshine hue.

Adrienne Wilkinson (Xena: Warrior Princess, As If) plays Emily. Wilkinson makes a masterful use of her eyes - expressing emotions with looks that say more than other actors can with words. Her eyes can invite you, or haunt you.

"Yesterday's Dream" is a short film from Andrew Ward and Oriol Bernat - a good debut film for both writer and director.

Fan of film noir? You'll appreciate the effort that went into making Yesterday's Dream. The concept behind it is great. It involves a happily married couple who's life comes crashing down on them when the wife is killed in a tragic, unexpected car accident. The husband struggles to move on and get his life together...but its not working. His only moments of happiness come from imagining his wife back in his life - this happens when he uses heroin to blue the present and bring back the happiness of his past. His friends try to help him out of his downward spiral but nothing can save this man. Or he is saved, depending on how you look at it. Its a tragic and sad story, but full of heart and shot with an eye for romantic detail.