The Science of Sleep is a frantic and funny diversion, but it pales and tires before its time is up. It doesn’t know the meaning of enough.
The Science of Sleep (2006)
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Reviews Counted:152
Fresh:105
Rotten:47
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Lovely and diffuse, Sleep isn't as immediately absorbing as Gondry's previous work, but its messy beauty is its own reward.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, some sexual content and nudity
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Sep 22, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $4,572,038
Synopsis: For his first non-documentary film after 2004's ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, French writer/director Michel Gondry applies his highly inventive cinematic vision to THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP.... For his first non-documentary film after 2004's ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, French writer/director Michel Gondry applies his highly inventive cinematic vision to THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP. Largely set in the very active subconscious mind of Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal), the movie bounces back and forth between his vivid dreams and mundane real life, which involves living in a Parisian apartment owned by his mother (Miou-Miou) and working at an office with a strange crew of characters, including the crass Guy (Alain Chabat). When Stephane meets Stephanie, a shy neighbor from next door (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, the daughter of Gallic crooner Serge Gainsbourg and British singer/actress Jane Birkin), the two form an unusual friendship, one that may or may not lead to romance. Even more than ETERNAL SUNSHINE, THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP is marked by Gondry's whimsical-yet-melancholy aesthetic (honed working on videos by Bjork, the White Stripes, and others), which makes heavy use of stop-motion animation and other playful visual tricks. While the former film was rooted in its American setting (Long Island, NY), SLEEP is a thoroughly European affair steeped in its French setting, with the eccentric Stephane (a transplant from Mexico) alternating between speaking (and even dreaming) in English, French, and Spanish. Although its occasionally over-the-top quirkiness may baffle some viewers, SLEEP's unpredictable and engagingly odd sense of storytelling is sure to intrigue fans of other indie classics such as AMELIE and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. [More]
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou-Miou, Alain Chabat
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou-Miou, Alain Chabat, Pierre Vaneck, Sacha Bourdo
Director: Michel Gondry
Director: Michel Gondry
Screenwriter: Michel Gondry
Composer: Jean Michel Bernard
Studio: Warner Independent
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Reviews for The Science of Sleep
A richly imaginative and enchantingly playful work of onscreen art, The Science of Sleep is not so much a straightforward narrative as it is a pastiche of fanciful reveries, brightly-colored visuals and childlike innocence personified.
Kind of all over the place and self-indulgent, but that's what's so great about it. When's the last time you saw a movie that was truly unpredictable?
Even though the visual fireworks of Gondry's mind keep you attentive, his clumsy stutterings about love and honesty are painfully underdeveloped.
The flying sequences, though extremely lo-tech, succeed in stirring that feeling of flight, stirring a few stomach butterflies.
The Science of Sleep is probably not a film for everyone, but in a perfect world where dreamers and artists were celebrated, it would be.
Gainsbourg has anti-film presence. Why is she in movies hiding from the camera and not wearing makeup or combing her hair?
As weird and playful as Eternal Sunshine, but not as poetic, romantic or engaging, this structurally messy and visualy busy film is a reflection of Gondry's unbridled and undisciplined imagination--it's the first film based on his own script.
There's no question about it-the mind of Michel Gondry is a weird, wonderful place.
The difference between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep is the difference between a good pop song and a great punk record.
Every element of the set design, cinematography, dialogue and sound blurs the line between realism and fantasy.
The hyperactive juvenile whimsy and the stoner dream theories are out of control -- and fascinatingly close to pathology.
Like Eternal Sunshine and Gilliam's Brazil, it demands to be seen more than once and is impossible to sum up in one review.
A whimsical, irrepressibly creative and playfully childlike confection.
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