A Masterpiece!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

About a decade ago I worked in the offices of a local council's Environmental Health department and, among the jobs that fell into this department was that of dealing with the issue of people who had been found dead and didn't have anyone to make the arrangements. It didn't happen too often but occasionally the office would be used as a temporary store for loads of books, VHS tapes or other hoarded possessions of people who had died alone and seemed to have nobody. I never attended the funerals of these people but colleagues who did the arrangements generally reported a few friends or family but that was all. Despite never knowing these people, I had made the decision that these were sad lonely people who lived alone forever, knew nobody and had always been that way.In a way, when we enter this film and hear about Joyce, this is the same impression it is very easy to have; she died alone and lay undiscovered for three years Three years with nobody anywhere really making an effort to find out why they hadn't seen her for a while. The lack of information in the paper about this person is what led Morley to make this documentary and she does unearth a lot and a great deal of it shows that Joyce was not some introverted hermit but in some ways just the opposite. It was clear from the detail that she did carry a great sadness within her, but at the same time she was active socially, had famous connections in the music industry and was a very attractive woman. The film builds this picture well – even surprising her friends with some details, but it never really gets to a point or to answers and this is the main problem with the film.On the whole it does engage by virtue of how saddening it is and in the way it forces the viewer to ask questions of (and about) ones self, but this isn't quite enough to make the film fill 90 minutes. The details of Joyce's life only increased the questions but the film doesn't lay blame anywhere and doesn't investigate how anyone can go unnoticed for three years. This side of things isn't as good and it is a real shame as it could have had more of an impact. The subject itself is fascinating though and the mix of interviews and dramatized moments does work pretty well – with some interesting characters in her life and some great moments acted out by Ashton. The direction and look of the film is mostly good – it is very lively and good looking, not unlike the Joyce we see portrayed as well.Dreams of a Life is a depressing and engaging film thanks to the subject matter and the way it is delivered, but it doesn't go far enough. It doesn't have an overall point in particular and it leaves as many questions as it answers; the viewer is left with a sense of sadness which is worthy but not a real understanding of anything beyond this one person. I liked it for what it did well, but the gaps are disappointing.

I was originally very interested in seeing this movie. the whole story of what may have happened to this woman. I can definitely understand why a film was made surrounding this mystery. I did not find it to be very interesting nor did my husband. the best term I can use it is mush.The flip flops between reenacted so called life experiences and muttering of friends about random encounters they had with her. it left me wondering so many times why is this even in this movie? It almost includes such boring details as weather she liked her eggs poached or fried. A lot of the details are random and do not connect. Nor does it conclude or give real details as to why some of her male relationships ended. Yet there were plenty of vague statements made by various exes.it leaves me curious as to what mundane details were edited. You were with her for years and the only thing you can say is how lovely she was and that you had some "good" times?The so called life experiences are drug out with super slow camera panning. SPOILER ALERT----- The entire movie focuses on how beautiful and enigmatic she was and yet humble. It also seemed confusing as to weather she was very promiscuous? There are certainly enough of this film that suggests that. A lot of dream sequence scenes are painfully long and downright corny. How many singing sadly alone with a brush sequences are needed to get the point across? This probably never happened. Lets not forget the sad and brutally slow dead eyed apartment scenes. From all accounts it suggests she was vivacious party girl. Over all, this was a dud. The movie could have been shortened to a half an hour. The real mystery lies in the fact her landlord didn't come busting her door down a month after she died. I am left to believe she was beautiful woman who knew it and didn't truly care about her relationships with others.

While the story of Joyce Vincent is deeply saddening, this film is comprised about 60% of interviews of people speculating what happened, 30% reconstruction of speculated moments and 10% of informative, engaging content if that. I am not the kind of person to be interested in speculation of an interesting story, particularly when those speculating are Vincent's work colleagues, and on and off boyfriends from DECADES AGO. ***SPOILER ABOUT HER VAGUE PERSONALITY, WHO KNEW?!*** So we discover that, while people got impressions of her they never really knew her, which you would expect of someone who was dead for three years before she was found. I lost count of the amount of times I heard them talk about how pretty and sexy she was. So much repetition with regards to interview content. It's just boring. Her family doesn't appear because they want to remain anonymous... and uninformative. You may be asking yourself "but surely- SURELY her family would have tried to contact her and find her?" and yeah, they all ask that too. Numerous times. "Was it a murder?" they wonder that too. SO MUCH SPECULATION. I started drifting off about half an hour in, by which point you pretty much get all the details you're going to get. You get all the facts in about the first five minutes. This documentary is more about the people around her, recalling vague memories, who aren't engaging enough to base a documentary on. It's just too long winded and opinionated and I don't have time for that.

At its core this is a story about a very lonely person, one that we all may know, and how she fell through the cracks of life. One character sums it up perfectly: "It's strange really, it's like she never really existed but was just a figment of our imagination. She was a story. Someone that we all just made up; partly because we just let someone disappeared and die. Someone that we all thought we cared about." A few people have mentioned that this documentary is weak because Joyce, and her story, are mundane and not remarkable." They're absolutely correct, but I see this as a strength for the documentary. Joyce, and her "friends", are not remarkable in any way. Instead, they are normal people who lived their life around someone that was almost a ghost.It's remarkable to watch these people recite, and discover, how little they knew this woman that they considered a friend. And yet these friends, or interviewees, are the best window into Joyce's life. As the title of the film suggests it really is like Joyce only existed in a dream. Her past and future never existed and she was only a shell of a person. I was reminded strongly of the movie Inception while thinking about Joyce. Not to ruin Inception for anyone, but there's a conversation where one character says to another "I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all your perfection and imperfection. You're just a shade..." That's what Joyce was, only a shade of a real person.If there's a lesson to take from this movie it's that we need to do a better job of keeping in contact with our friends. I don't know what happened in Joyce's life that left her to die alone, but no one should have that fate.