Dreams

Directed by Michel Franco, Dreams follows a wealthy socialite (Jessica Chastain’s Jennifer) as she attempts to maintain a covert relationship with a much younger man (Isaac Hernández’s Fernando). It’s potentially salacious subject matter that is, for the most part, employed to subdued and deliberate effect by Franco, as the filmmaker, armed with his own screenplay, delivers an art-house drama that feels like it’s unfolding in slow motion over the course of its short-yet-not-short-enough 98 minutes – with the picture’s saving grace, for the most part, Chastain’s predictably commanding turn and a recurring emphasis on appealing real-life San Francisco locations. (Hernández is generally fine here, although it remains clear that he’s out of his depth opposite Chastain.) And while the movie suffers from a hit-and-miss midsection that often seems to be spinning its wheels, Dreams builds towards a relatively gripping final stretch that boasts a couple of legitimately surprising (and palpably cruel) plot twists – which ultimately confirms the movie’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that certainly fares better than Franco’s previous collaboration with Chastain, 2023’s lackluster Memory.

**1/2 out of ****