How many of us in the current social set up yearn for social validation and acceptance in the real or online world? The number would be huge and could encompass almost the entire human race in one way or another. The entire business of social media has pushed us to a limit where we have willingly productized ourselves for the market and later become a medium to sell products of other people. In such a world, if you get viral (unfortunately the word that we don’t use for disease these days) for a negative scenario, it could be catastrophic. The movie Dream Scenario banks on this very idea and explores what may or may not be true.

 

The story of Paul Matthews (played by Nicolas Cage) is based on such a hypothetical scenario that it almost appears to be a bad dream hence the movie title seems to be somewhat justified. The old professor, Paul Matthews, through all his years dreams of getting recognized as a researcher and getting some recognition for his hard earned life. That very thought of getting attention becomes a catastrophe for him. People around the world start dreaming about him in a weird way. Almost, in all those dreams, he appears to be a passing by character who is barely actively involved with other people’s dream scenario. Reluctantly enough, he starts to accept the viral nature of his social acceptance and begins to productise himself. 

But, then, the dream scenario changes quickly and his presence in other people’s dreams turns into a nightmare. He begins to appear in dreams doing violent and abusive things which turns into a complete social rejection for him. The tone and pace of the movie is such that it immerses you in the storytelling and the marvelous acting performance by Nicolas Cage brings you to a point that you start to dislike the entire dream scenario too. It’s a good thing in terms of movie making and acting but very bad for an audience. I almost felt like stopping watching it midway.

My major complaint about this movie is the tonality. The movie could have easily been a psychological comedy which is rare to find these days but that obvious shift towards the psychological thriller genre was in fact disturbing. Take for example, the movie The Family Man from 2000 where Nicolas Cage undergoes another dream scenario to realize something that he has been missing his entire life, true love. The movie Dream Scenario also comes to the same point but in a weird way. Paul was never able to breakthrough the dreams of his own wife when he had a chance but tries to enter her dream through a piece of technology later.

This sad movie about Paul Matthews does make you sick from inside and the worst aspect is that Paul is himself the villain and victim of his own life. The socially awkward people do have this tendency but to present it through a way of collective subconscious is definitely intriguing.

The movie does, however, do one thing fantastically. The social commentary about the world we live in now. The Norwegian writer and director, Kristoffer Borgli, puts that very wisely into the plot. Instead of focusing on social validation, one should focus on the life that is built already. The personal space is sacred enough to let go of any viral phenomenon that you may want in your life. Interestingly, some of us may find this movie sad enough that it could make daily vloggers dislike it except when they have to comment on this movie itself. I hope that the dream scenario for them would be something different.