The Good Night

Introduction

Once a successful pop star, Gary (Martin Freeman) now writes music for commercials, is in an unhappy relationship with Dora (Gwyneth Paltrow) and is jealous of Paul (Simon Pegg), his best friend and former band mate, who is making loads of money in advertising. Heading for a mid-life crisis, he begins to dream about Anna (Penélope Cruz) in dreams that are so vivid they are indistinguishable from real life - apart from the Italians that threaten him. As these dreams progress and he begins having an 'affair' with Anna, he seeks advice from Mel (Danny DeVito) an expert in 'lucid dreaming'. Everything goes well to the point where he prefers being asleep to being awake, until Dora appears in his dreams and he discovers that Melodia (also Penélope Cruz) exists in real life.

Video & Audio

An excellent 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, as it should be for a film that has only just finished its theatrical run.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is also very good, with clear dialogue, a decent score and music Pulp, The Troggs and T'pau. The orchestral theme from Blur's The Universal also features heavily.

Well written and error-free English HoH subtitles are available.

Extra Features

Trailers for The Accidental Husband, Penelope and Love in the Time of Cholera (along with a Maltesers commercial!) precede the main menu, but these are skippable. The only extra of note is the theatrical trailer.

Conclusion

You'd expect a debut film to be full of fresh and original ideas, but it wasn't that far into this film that I realised that I'd seen it all before in the Charlie Kaufman/Michel Gondry/Spike Jonze films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich and especially The Science of Sleep.

Other obvious sources of inspiration were Videodrome, Altered States and David Lynch's films about different states of consciousness/alternate realities, like Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire which are much more interesting and accomplished.

The Good Night is interspersed with unnecessary interviews featuring Jarvis Cocker (amongst others) talking about Gary, but these only serve to muddy the narrative instead of adding to it and should have been left on the cutting room floor.

In his first feature, Jake Paltrow (brother of Gwyneth) has assembled a fine cast, no doubt due in no small part to his sister's industry contacts - what other debut director could get Michael Gambon in a cameo role as a writer of books about lucid dreaming? Although perfectly watchable, this is mediocre fare.