Dream House (2011)

Why so much hype?

hyped garbage

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

After quitting his job and moving together with his family in a new home, Will begins to believe that something is not right. He starts encountering some strange events, nobody is willing to help, so he suddenly realizes that he's living a dream and that a hidden truth from the past is there to be found.It's a very twisted story of a man haunted by his past who struggles to preserve his mental sanity while trying to figure out what happened so wrong that changed his life dramatically. It is interesting and catchy with all its mind challenging events and its sudden changes of perspective keeping you focused all the way to the end. There is one aspect that kept me from giving it maximum rating and that is the cause of the fatal event which simply put, was awkward. It's a bit difficult to fully enjoy a film that's so serious knowing that it all began from a stupid misunderstanding. Otherwise, it's a pretty great drama.

Well, boring is a death sentence for any movie - but why is that one a bit boring? - Because it is very predictable - at some point, well before the who conclusion, you can put 1 and 1 together and then - you just float gently towards the end - experiencing exactly what you expected.Acting is nice (no surprise there, considering the cast) - and cinematography is well done, too in my opinion. It is the storytelling that lacks - and of course the rather generic plot as is.

I was expecting a classic paranormal movie with ghosts, spirits, entities, etc., but was surprised with the actual story line. It's a good movie, creative like "The Sixth Sense" was creative & different. When you make it about half way through the movie is when it starts to mess with your head as you try to figure out where the story is heading, but it keeps you guessing. The ending could of been a bit different, perhaps a bit more definitive towards answering the questions you still have, but the way it does end works well enough.

What happens when you take a re-hashed who-done-it ghost story, throw in accomplished Irish director Jim Sheridan (Bloody Sunday, In America) and add an overly controlling production company? You get Dream House, a psychological ghost story centered around a sloppy murder mystery that offers a keyholes worth of insight into a potentially fruitful script. Without any press promotions, interviews, or test screens, Dream House quickly became a film destined for the gutter. What came out of all the tinkering and reworking is a film with an A-list cast that continually struggle and fail in their attempts to lift their film to something above the abysmal, plodding, and completely forgettable film it is.Beginning with the willful resignation of publisher Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) so he could spend more time with his family and his novel, Dream House introduces us to our titular house and the family that now resides within (Rachel Weisz, Taylor Geare, and Claire Astin Geare). Soon afterwards the daughters begin seeing a man lurking outside, and Will encounters a group of stereotypical goth kids who lead him on to the misdeeds that have occurred within the houses walls. With help from neighbor Ann Paterson (Naomi Watts) and her daughter Chloe (Rachel G. Fox), Will begins to dig deep into the murder of the home's previous family, only to discover something far worse.What plays out throughout the rest of the film is an endurance of patience, one that has no real reward or payoff. We are treated to a loving family and what they do within their home, to the investigative search of a man who must protect those he loves. All of this builds to almost nothing of what we have come to look for in a psychological thriller. Gone are the tense feelings, unnerving thoughts, white knuckles, and inevitable head rush as the story takes us in another direction. I almost don't know who to blame for this absence of anything resembling psychological horror, but Dream House seems to keep it under the floorboards, hidden from anyone who cares to enjoy its company.Surprising me the most is Daniel Craig as Will Atenton, who six years earlier gave us an amazing portrayal of crazy and paranoid in The Jacket, easily outshining its lead actor, Adrian Brody. What we are given as a representation of insane is slicked back greasy hair, a worn army jacket, and an empty stone look. Dream House also never bothers to truly show us a real descent into madness, with everything sort of blurring slowly into one mishmash of botched storytelling. Even Naomi Watts comes off dead in her tracks, delivering lines like the pouring of molasses; slow and wasteful. Whether or not you put blame on Jim Sheridan who has delivered excellent films in the past, or the production company Morgan Creek, Dream House is a film that delivers on little it has to offer. What begins as a potentially promising ghost story ends up unraveling into a yawn inducing attempt at psychological thrills. When we aren't being dragged along for the chase as one man uncovers the truth, we are treated to sappy, nightmare inducing family moments that feel carved out of an L.L. Bean catalog. Behind all of this poor execution is a small glimpse of what could have been an enjoyable yet been-there-done-that film, a glimpse that only adds to the disappointment. Dream House never manages to get its foundation established, causing the rest of it to sag and eventually collapse on to its own emptiness.