The Good Night

“Do not go gentle into that good night … “

Martin Freeman is perfect as Gary, the depressed ex band member going through the motions of a dull job and a stale relationship. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Dora, his partner, with the right degree of dowdiness. Two tired people in a tired apartment, washing drying on hangers on the doorknobs,”Love you” as they switch off the bedside lamps. Silence.

Then Gary begins to have vivid dreams about a beautiful woman called Anna (Penelope Cruz) who seems to offer him everything he wants. This dream world is the only part of his life which makes him happy and he doesn’t want to wake from it. The dreams become an obsession. He hears of a class run by Mel (Danny DeVito) where he can learn how to control and prolong the dreams. Soon he is returning more and more to his dream world, but Dora starts appearing there too.

One day Gary sees the face of “Anna” on an advertising poster and realises she must really exist. His friend, Paul (smoothly played by Simon Pegg), says he must have seen the pictures at some time and this is what started the dreams. But when he arranges for Gary to meet “Anna” at a photoshoot things do not go the way Gary had hoped.

Dora announces that she is taking some time alone to make a trip to Venice, and Gary has full blackout and sound insulation installed in the apartment so that he can spend all his time in dreams with Anna. Again, both women appear in his dreams, until a moment arrives when he has to make a crucial choice.

If you can stay with this film until the final shot, it may change your mind about everything that has gone before. It certainly raises a whole new lot of questions. Jake Paltrow has given us a film which is bold and thought provoking. The trouble is, it is also depressing and a lot of it is dull. Dreams are only really fascinating when they are yours. Other people’s soon begin to pall. There are lighter moments, mainly when Simon Pegg is around, but I could have done with a few more.

“I gotta tell you, being with you is depressing,” says Danny DeVito. I agreed.