Touches You

So much average

Just what I expected

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Martin Freeman plays a jingle writer whose life is all about playing it safe, while being a musician. Then, he begins to have random lucid dreams about an ideal woman, whom he becomes obsessed with.Martin's character wanders through the range of explorations that someone might go through in search of a way to make the dream girl real. These are classic endeavors, and quite funny.Finally he sees his dream girl on a poster on the side of a bus. He uses his connections in the advertising world to find out who she is, and to arrange a meeting. When he meets his dream girl in real life, played by Penélope Cruz,he finds her less than perfect on her interior.As a lucid dreamer I found this movie to be an impressive portrayal of what lucid dreaming can be like. Experiencing an ideal person, and feeling intense attraction for that person, are common themes in lucid dreaming. The beauty of this movie is Jake Paltrow (writer and director) got that the ideal person, in reality, might just be the wrong person.

I see that this movie isn't well-received. . .? . . . ---I loved it!I like dark humor, and subtlety, and a script that trusts the viewer enough to simply suggest what's happening, and this movie satisfies all of that. Written and directed by Jake Paltrow, starring a mostly British cast of Martin Freeman, sister Gwyneth, Penelope Cruz, Simon Pegg, and Danny DeVito in a strange ensemble none of whom seem to really know one another. There's a sense that this movie isn't really happening, that the characters aren't sure who or what they are to one another, that the action may or may not be delusional: dream? not-dream? the boundary edges of reality have been softened or erased to the point of ambiguity. I believe this is what the director was striving for, and he got it perfectly. I am still reeling by the few comments I saw that disliked this movie--- --were we watching the same flick? Jake has captured the ennui and uncertainty of intimate relationships, especially when artistic personalities are involved. Wishes are faded, hopes for success, mega- or otherwise, are withering or stunted, and the concept of "dreaming" becomes itself part of the uncertainty of the storyline---an uncertainty purposefully part of the script. We live our dreams, we get caught up in our dreams, yet our dreams exist often aside from how we live. And who's to say what's real? Is night consciousness less or more than daytime consciousness? Nothing is 100% real.I don't want to give anything away. I hate spoilers if I haven't seen a movie, and don't want to even accidentally mention something that would detract from another's enjoyment of discovery. Freeman's character is going through a minor meltdown, his life increasingly one on the outside looking in. He's "married," but the love and desire has diminished for both of them. He seeks help from a most unlikely (and most unprofessional) pseudotherapist, DeVito, and the reality of his life begins to unravel as he struggles the more to make sense of it all. It is a brilliant study of a mentally ill and conflicted world with pervasive fears and worries. The cast is excellent. Couldn't be better.I love this movie. I love its dark humor, and its subtlety. Well done, Jake!

I'm a major Charlie Kaufman fan, enough so that I am willing to see other filmmakers lightly tread the territory he has mastered while waiting for his next masterpiece. Zach Helms' script for Stranger Than Fiction (8/10) is the rom-com answer to the theme of art and reality being interchangeable, as expressed also in Adaptation (9/10). Jake Paltrow's The Good Night is an indie-dramedy look at the subconscious vs. reality theme CK nails in Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine (both 10/10). This film tells the story of Gary (Martin Freeman), a 30 something ex-rocker scoring commercials in New York. His stagnant relationship with an art-dealer girlfriend (Gwynneth Paltrow) and his complicated, brotherly friendship with an egotistical ex-bandmate and boss (Simon Pegg) give him little fulfillment. So he turns to a lucid dreams with an exotic dream girl (Penelope Cruz). But when both the dreams and his real life seem to unravel, he struggles to fix both.The story is certainly not innovative, but it is well-developed, and the characters are interesting enough. The movie feels very authentic and sincere, which makes it worth sitting through. Jake Paltrow is not a particularly inventive director, but the camera-work is generally competent and the dream sequences are nicely photographed.The real highlights of the film are the subtle supporting performances by director's sister Gwen and the brilliant Simon Pegg. Freeman's role is pretty typical of his other work, but he carries the movie reasonably well. Devito and Cruz are both dull and distracting in their roles. It would have been better if their parts had been given to lesser-known actors who would have cared more about the production.A rental of this movie is certainly worth 90 minutes of your evening.

The idea is interesting enough. A musician in his thirties suffers from a major dip in his career and his relationship. But instead of addressing these problems, and have a serious talk with his girlfriend, the main character is more interested in explaining his childish dreams of a hot brunette. I didn't feel gripped for one minute by the story. And at the end, we are supposed to believe that Gary has surmounted his problems because the dreamgirl has said she for one believes in him. He composes a piano tune, gets one more chance from his girlfriend, and that's that. By the way, why has Paltrow used the documentary form? Was there anything to make a documentary about? The guy broke his leg, for heaven's sake. That's not to say there's nothing enjoyable about this film, but it's very little. It's okay if director's debut doesn't smash box office records or win three Palms in Venice. But Paltrow should dig deeper into his subject before making any other movie at all. No matter how good your cast is (and it's pretty decent), without good ideas, any film is bound to disappoint.