I Dream
too Much is one of those rare coming-of-age dramas about a female. Dora (Brolin) has just graduated from
college and is studying for the LSAT, but she is a dreamy kind of person who
wants to travel the world. It
doesn’t help that two of her friends are headed to Brazil for a vacation. The character seems much younger than
her age—she’s more like a 14 year-old, rather giggly and squealing with her
friend and constantly at odds with her mother (Rouner). This and her flighty, pressured speech
for the first part of the film made it too “girly” for me, and hard to stick
with.
When Dora hears that her elderly great aunt in
upstate New York has broken her foot, she gets the bright idea of going there
and helping out. Her mother is
none too pleased, but consents to it in the hope that in a quiet environment,
Dora will be better able to prepare for the entrance exam for law school.
Dora arrives all chirpy and keyed up only to
find that her Aunt Vera (Ladd) is rather grumpy and hard to please. A strong part of the film, however, is
that eventually they find their groove and have meaningful conversations
prompted by Vera’s memories of her life.
Dora is fascinated by the stories, and when she finds letters and
journals in a box in the closet written by her aunt through the years, she is
transfixed.
One day, Dora happens upon a boutique and is
immediately drawn to the salesperson, Abbey, an aspiring singer/songwriter who
helps her pick out clothes that give her more style, and the two become
friends. During one of Dora’s
visits to the store, a man walks in looking for a gift for his girlfriend, and
Abbey almost faints because Nikki (McCaffrey) is a music producer. Dora immediately steps up and promises
Abbey that she will manage to get an audition for her with Nikki.
One of Dora’s positive traits is that she likes
to help people; however, her judgment is not always sound, and if she is
distracted she might forget her noble intentions. It is at this point in the narrative that I became engaged
in the story. It’s when Dora gets
feedback from Abbey and her aunt that her “helpfulness” is not helpful, and
would she please back off. In
fact, both relationships seem endangered.
This is where the coming-of-age theme kicks in; it’s the painful
experience of possibly being rejected by two people she really cares about that
Dora becomes more insightful and attentive to needs outside her own.
The story becomes even more interesting when
Dora’s mother arrives to take her home and the truth comes out about her
father’s death and the reason Dora has been told a story about it rather than
the truth (guilt, of course). It’s
also an exquisite time when the alliance between oldest and youngest helps the
one in the middle, age-wise, that is.
In the end, I liked the film much better than
in the beginning when Dora’s character is over-dramatized and downright
irritating. The film has substance
in showing how a young person can develop into someone to admire, which is not
necessarily a conventional route.
As Vera tells Dora at one point, “You’re a Wells, Dora. We do not follow a straight line.” And eventually Vera and Dora discover
that they are a lot alike, and Dora goes from saying, “Why is it that
everything fabulous always seems so far away from me?” to “Everything fabulous
is not so far away from me.”
A Q&A after the Houston Cinema Arts
Festival screening of I Dream too Much
with writer/director Katie Cokinos, executive producer Richard Linklater,
producers Ed and Jack McWilliams, and actor/producer Jay Thames gave the
audience background information about the film. First of all, Cokinos was inspired by her daughter Lula who
prefers Jane Austen over films like The
Hunger Games, and she wanted to make a film not seen very often—one about
girls that is not dark with rape and other violations. To some extent also, she based the
story on her own experience coming out of college (e.g., she was intending to
go to law school and ended up in the more creative arts sector, which happens
to Dora).
The filmmakers talked about the difficulty in
filming, primarily in dealing with three blizzards in the Catskills. Cokinos said, “I’ve now made my Dr.
Zhivago movie!” There are a number
of beautiful snow scenes in one of which Edin Brolin turns blue from the
cold. Director of photography Alex
Rappoport, who happens to be Cokinos’ husband, gives us breathtaking winter
scenes. He originally suggested
Cokinos make a film that takes place in their hometown, Saugerties, New York,
and for Aunt Vera’s elegant house, they found an old 19th century
Hindu retreat. The exterior looks
just like an American version of an Austen-inspired mansion.
A female coming-of-age account told
with humor and insight.
Grade: B By
Donna R. Copeland
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