Dream Scenario * * * *

Kristoffer Borgli is the same writer/director who gave us Sick of Myself.  That film was spoken in Norwegian and set in his native Norway, this one is in English and set in America

Starring the excellent Nicholas Cage (and he is truly excellent in this film) Borgli once again gives us a crazy scenario. 

Cage plays a mild-mannered professor.  He lectures at the university and would be happy to live a quiet life and mind his own business.  But unfortunately he is starting to bother a lot of other people as he is appearing in their dreams. 

The man of your dreams

At first people are amused and are likely to say "I dreamt about you last night".  But then, he begins to realise he is in an awful lot of dreams!  

After he has been videoed by his students, who have all dreamt about him, and after he has been put out there on social media, the phenomena increases, and soon he starts to appear in the dreams of people he has never met; they have simply seen a video of him.  Internet forums like Twitter are running rampant as people share the dream they had of the good professor.

He doesn't want any of this but it won't stop.  Soon it turns from their problem, to his, which is what the internet is ideally for - publicly blaming someone else for your problems.

People respond like he is deliberately doing it. The illogicality of that seems to escape everyone.  Then things get even worse when he starts doing terrible things to them in their dreams. Some admit to having sexual encounters with him in their dreams, and wish they hadn't.  Everyone hates him and is disgusted by him.  They recognise him on the street and in cafes.  He becomes a social pariah, and is treated like someone who really has set about to invade their private sleep time.  

Meanwhile he is trying to lead a normal life, keep his job and save his marriage under the weight of all this.

Like Sick of Myself it is darkly humorous and very clever.  I was a little disappointed when it took it to another area and started nudging Science Fiction rather than sticking to its brutal unexplained weirdness, but overall it's a really good film.