In Dreams (Film Review)

1999 Dreamworks Pictures
Directed by: Neil Jordan; Written by: Bruce Robinson and Neil Jordan
Starring: Annette Bening, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Robert Downey Jr., and Paul Guilfoyle
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 100 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 3/10

Like most people, Claire lives in an autumnal, lakeside town where she illustrates children's books and experiences premonitions. When local girls go missing and start turning up dead, Claire has visions that she thinks come from the eyes of the killer. Unfortunately, things become even more personal when Claire's own daughter is kidnapped and found dead, and her husband is murdered. Now, Claire must not only try to catch the killer, with whom she seems to share a mental link...but stay outside the padded walls of the local mental asylum.
Neil Jordan's 1999 trippy psycho killer thriller, In Dreams, is a dumb, nonsensical mess that is also one of the most visually stunning films ever made. Jordan packs In Dreams with lush, overwhelmingly beautiful aesthetics, whether it's a cascade of autumn leaves or a cascade of rotting autumn apples, the most gorgeous school play ever staged or a dog gnawing on its master. This movie is insane, featuring an off the rails performance by Annette Bening, and a never even on the track, nutso turn by Robert Downey Jr., as the film's psychotic antagonist. In Dreams isn't worth watching for its story, characters, themes, or anything for which one generally watches a film. However, Darius Khondji's cinematography is mind-blowing, and Elliot Goldenthal's score is lush and enveloping. 

Lush. 

There's just not a better word to describe this movie. A visually and aurally mind-blowing drunken mess.