Daniela Forever

Directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Daniela Forever follows Henry Golding’s Nick as he agrees to participate in a trial that affords users the opportunity to dream lucidly – with the narrative detailing Nick’s efforts at bringing his dead girlfriend (Beatrice Grannò’s Daniela) back to life during his nocturnal exploits. It’s an intriguing, promising premise that is, for the most part, employed to hopelessly tedious and underwhelming effect by Vigalondo, as the filmmaker, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a sluggish and often breathtakingly lackadaisical endeavor that strikes all the wrong notes virtually from minute one – with Golding’s less-than-captivating performance and the picture’s palpably overlong running time exacerbating its myriad of problems. There is, as such, little doubt that one’s ongoing efforts at embracing any of this fall woefully flat, and it’s clear, too, that the wheel-spinning bent of the film’s repetitive midsection does little to alleviate the increasingly interminable vibe. (Whats the point of all this, one can’t help but wonder.) By the time the eye-rollingly surreal final stretch rolls around, Daniela Forever has confirmed its place as an ambitious misfire that doesn’t even remotely earn its poignant final few minutes.

*1/2 out of ****