DREAM SCENARIO is more of a nightmare for Nicholas Cage’s character, in this darkest of comedies from Norwegian writer/director Kristoffer Borgli, a social satire commenting on the power and irrational nature of social media. While Cage’s character is not having a good day, actor Nicholas Cage looks like he is having a grand old time, relishing this role as a hapless guy at the center of this outside-the-mainstream dark comedy.
Like his role as a backwoods recluse in PIG, Cage is anything but prettied up for this part, playing an aging, balding professor whose ordinary guy life is upended when random people start seeing him in their dreams.
At first, Cage’s middle-aged academic is sort of flattered by the attention, although he has done nothing to cause his dream appearances. The biology professor hopes it will help him find a publisher for his book on animal behavior, a book he hasn’t yet even written.
A running theme in this satiric comedy, which goes darker and darker until its bitter end, is the pervasive power of social media, to elevate and to demonize, even when the focus on that attention does nothing to deserve either. But so are the danger in unfulfilled dreams and a wasted life. In some ways, Cage’s professor has done this to himself by setting the stage for the destruction – by not doing enough with his life, by just drifting and floating downstream in his comfortable life.
Hapless family man Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) has a pretty comfortable life. A dowdy tenured professor at a small college, he lives in nice home with his beloved wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and two daughters Sophie (Lily Bird) and Hannah (Jessica Clement). Still he radiates a sense of feeling like he is missing out, of unfulfilled potential. He is irritated by students who barely listen in his zoology lectures, and he talks frequently about publishing a book on his research but worries about finding a publisher. Right now, Paul is unhappy that another academic , someone he worked with in grad school, is publishing a book on research on ant behavior they did together. Of course, Paul never published his work himself but he’s still upset.
Actually, Paul hasn’t even written the book he talks about endlessly. He feels left out that another professor he’s known for years has never invited him and his wife to their storied, intellectual dinner parties. Basically, he doesn’t feel like he is taken seriously. And he’s right, because he’s been drifting through life for years, wrapped in the comfort of his family life, while everyone around him has moved forward.
Paul plans to confront this former colleague, who was also an old girlfriend, about her book, when they meet for coffee, where Paul assumes she is going to ask for permission to use their shared research. He hasn’t seen her in years yet she reached out about meeting, and although he loves his wife, Paul also seem a bit too eager to see this old girlfriend, wondering if that she is still carrying a torch for him.
Instead of discussing her upcoming book or any romantic feelings, he discovers what she wants to talk about is her dreams – nightly dreams in which he has started appearing. She wants permission to write about that on her blog.
Then it turns out a lot of people are seeing Paul in their dreams – millions of people he never met – and suddenly Paul is a social media sensation.
He just appears in their dreams as a passive presence, not a participant, even if terrible things are happening in the dream to the dreamer. Paul is kind of unhappy that he does nothing to help but there isn’t anything he can do to change someone else’s dream.
The professor is confused about the sudden fame, because after all he isn’t actually doing anything, but he quickly warms to all the attention. People seek him out, ask for his autograph and listen in his lectures – or at least seem to listen.
Then the dreams shift, and suddenly Paul becomes a negative presence, even a threatening one, in the dreams. The social media landscape changes with that, and then so does Paul. DREAM SCENARIO heads into ever-darker comedy and eventually towards psychological horror.
Tim Meadows gives a very funny, dry humor performance as Paul’s boss and friend, who really does not understand anything of what is happening. Michael Cera is spot-on in his role as one of the marketing executives hoping to cash in on Paul’s unexpected, unique fame.
This wicked comedy is the work of writer/director Kristoffer Borgli, whose previous film SICK OF MYSELF is a Norwegian/Swedish film also in a darkest comedy vein. Nicholas Cage is clearly having a wonderful time playing this schlub of a man, vain and unaccomplished soul despite his apparent early promise. This comically stiff character is very different from the reclusive slob Cage played in PIG but the actor’s skill and joy in stretching his acting muscles is just as apparent.
Cage is a great choice for this part, exceeding in the comic parts that dominate early on, but able to give the character a depth and complexity to carry the film as he falls into his personal hell. Despite Cage’s penchant for silly shallow roles and scenery chewing, a film like this shows that the actor really does have the goods to soar in his crafts.
One of the funniest satiric moments comes when Cage’s clueless professor agrees to work with a promotional company, a particularly absurd idea. The professor is hoping to find a publisher for the scholarly book he has not yet written but the agency has other things in mind, looking for ways to cash in on his unexpected fame, suggesting finding a way to insert product placement into his appearances in other people’s dreams. That nightmarish thought is persists as this tale unfolds.
The first two-thirds of DREAM SCENARIO are howlingly funny but then it takes a sinister turn, where the last 20 minutes are a painful slog of deep humiliation for Cage’s sad character. Having stripped everything away from Cage’s flawed but harmless character, writer/director Kristoffer Borgli continues to beat this dead horse long after the point has been made about toxic social media. With the plot’s social media-driven events having destroyed 90 percent of this character’s life, the film goes on to make sure we see every crumb of that life smashed and ensure we are clear there is no hope left at all, a squirm-inducing experience that strips any sense of comedy from the film’s remaining moments, transforming it into nightmarish tragedy. Borgli just doesn’t know when to leave this party, and seems determined to leave us with as grim and uncomfortable feeling as possible. Perhaps the director wants to ensure his film is memorable, and the last section does do that. It is memorable but not in a good way, just making us want to avoid ever seeing the film again.
DREAM SCENARIO offers a cautionary tale about social media and about a life not fully lived, in a darkest comedy form. Nicholas Cage gives a hilarious and then wrenching performance as a too-passive, too-small man whose life is upended by social media and events over which he has no control. Cage’s performance and the first two-thirds of the movie are excellent but the last twenty minutes, for many of us, are not an experience you’ll want to repeat.
DREAM SCENARIO opens Friday, Dec. 1, in theaters.
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
