Opening

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—— The Haunting of Helena Jun 21

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—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
—— White House Down Jun 28
—— The Heat Jun 28
56% I'm So Excited! Jun 28

The Science of Sleep (2006)

tomatometer

71

Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 157
Fresh: 111 | Rotten: 46

Lovely and diffuse, Sleep isn't as immediately absorbing as Gondry's previous work, but its messy beauty is its own reward.

67

Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 13

Lovely and diffuse, Sleep isn't as immediately absorbing as Gondry's previous work, but its messy beauty is its own reward.

audience

81

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 137,084

My Rating

Movie Info

Inventive Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry takes a surreal trip through the mind of an introverted but wildly creative man whose attempts to balance his colorful dreams with his stark reality are complicated by the arrival of a beautiful woman into his life. Shy St (C)phane (Gael Garca Bernal) has returned to his childhood hometown to accept a new job. When the prospective employment offer fails to live up to expectations, however, St (C)phane is at least comforted by

R,

Drama, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy

Michel Gondry

Feb 5, 2007

$4.6M

Warner Independent Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (164) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (111) | Rotten (46) | DVD (18)

In the moment, Gondry and Bernal almost manage to give quirky a good name.

February 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie plays like an exhausted hallucination, disjointed and frustrating, much of it owing to the lack of chemistry Gondry allows between his stars.

September 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment (1)
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In the end, after your time with it, you'll recall it with a smile, remembering its childish wonderment and mischievous sense of humor.

September 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

September 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Detroit News
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

September 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Gondry's creative breeze of a movie is fun while it lasts, and that's more than you can say about a whole lot of movies.

September 29, 2006
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

More amazing work from Gondry. If you're interested in a basic narrative, look away; if you prize inventive filmmaking, don't miss it.

November 16, 2012 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine Australasia
Empire Magazine Australasia

The Science Of Sleep is truly a delight at times, a startlingly original piece of work that's not as accessible as Eternal Sunshine but is every bit as magnificent when in full flow.

November 3, 2012 Full Review Source: TheShiznit.co.uk
TheShiznit.co.uk

It's kind of weird and very French, but don't let that scare you. The Science of Sleep is well worth your time.

April 1, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net
ComingSoon.net

A nightmare

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comment (1)
CinePassion

It's not that The Science of Sleep is a terrible film. It's not. It's just that it doesn't operate properly and there's nothing worse than seeing a film in which obvious design and potential is ultimately unfulfilled.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | Comment (1)
BrandonFibbs.com

Something like a Luis Bunuel film, but with politics replaced by fashion. It is, essentially, a hipster wet dream.

February 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinematical
Cinematical

A visual treat from beginning to end.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Eye for Film
Eye for Film

A wondrously baffling jigsaw puzzle where dreams and reality struggle to find a fit, The Science of Sleep is the dream you wish you could have, if you could only remember it

April 28, 2007 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile
Urban Cinefile

A creative, original work by a filmmaker with a fantastic visual flair who refuses to stick to any typical cinematic patterns, even if it's sometimes to a fault.

March 24, 2007 Full Review Source: UGO

The Science of Sleep is Gondry's loosest, most confident movie journey into the imaginative mind.

March 15, 2007 Full Review

Another comic love story that takes us inside a character's psyche, but Kaufman's rock-solid jokes are replaced by whimsy.

February 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK)
Sunday Times (UK)

Gondry always manages to maintain a childlike wonder in the magic of creating a moving image, and never is it more evident than in this film.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Times [UK]
Times [UK]

It's whimsical to the point of maddening. Bernal does his best, but there's only so much fawning any man can get away with.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: thelondonpaper
thelondonpaper

It's all lovely to look at, but becomes progressively wearisome.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

Dreams are easy to invent, and as easy to forget. The real challenge is to invent stories that have a stake in logic as well as truth.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Independent

A thwarted love story that does not trade in the degraded cliches either of romance or conventional sexiness.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

There's a very thin line between amusingly quirky and just plain pretentious. I'd say this falls somewhere in the middle.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Sun Online
Sun Online

As the movie progresses, we're presented with one of the best portrayals of the innate awkwardness of first love I can ever remember seeing.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK]
Daily Mirror [UK]

Beautifully directed, charmingly surreal and genuinely romantic, this is the perfect offbeat date movie and easily one of the best films of the year.

February 15, 2007 Full Review Source: ViewLondon
ViewLondon

Audience Reviews for The Science of Sleep

Romantic and hysterical! Very clever dream world of sock animals and cellophane seas. Gael García Bernal is awkwardly naive, and Charlotte Gainsbourg is understatedly worldly. Their clashing romance blossoms into the bittersweet.
August 9, 2008
aliceinpunderland

Super Reviewer

it's probably one of the most boring movies i've ever seen. i even booked preserved ticket to watch it in the theater, but it was so dull that i just kept falling asleep.

what's so fun to watch gael garcia pretends there's an explosion within his drawings? are you just five-year-old?
December 10, 2007
dietmountaindew
Veronique Kwak

Super Reviewer

    1. Stephane Miroux: The brain is the most complex thing in the universe and it's right behind the nose.
    – Submitted by Alexandar T (15 months ago)
    1. Stephanie: Randomness is very difficult to achieve. Organization always merges back if you don't pay attention.
    – Submitted by Alexandar T (15 months ago)
    1. Stephane Miroux: Would you marry me when we are seventy? You have nothing to lose.
    – Submitted by Diana L (17 months ago)
    1. Stephane Miroux: This girl is at once all the women that broke my heart. She is so beautiful and generous and she is asking me to leave because she is dumping me. She is dumping me because I am a cheap drug dealer. And I am a drug dealer because she wants to leave me.
    – Submitted by Diana L (17 months ago)
    1. Stephanie: Things will turn out the way you want, if you could just stop doubting that I love you. Call me home.
    – Submitted by Diana L (17 months ago)
    1. Serge: A heart that sighs has not what its desire.
    – Submitted by Ana M (22 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Science of Sleep - Anleitung zum Träumen (DE)
  • The Science of Sleep (UK)
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