In Dreams is a
psychological thrillerPsychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre...
directed by
Neil JordanNeil Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.-Early life:Jordan was born in County Sligo. He was educated at St. Paul's College, Raheny...
, released in
1999The year 1999 in film involved some significant events and was arguably the most successful year for films released in the 1990s. Several new feature films, including Star Wars Episode I, The Sixth Sense, The Green Mile, new sequel Toy Story 2, first of The Matrix, Disney's animated Tarzan,...
. The film has a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes.
In Dreams has the distinction of being the last film Robert Downey, Jr. completed before being sent to Corcoran State Prison on drug charges.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|
| Annette Bening Annette Francine Bening is an American actress.-Early life:Bening was born in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Shirley, a church singer and soloist, and Grant Bening, a sales training consultant and insurance salesman. Her parents, natives of Iowa, were practicing Episcopalians and conservative...
|
Claire Cooper |
Katie SagonaKatie Sagona is an American actress. She acted in a series of films and TV shows throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including You've Got Mail, In Dreams, Grumpier Old Men, Black and White, and she also played Johnny Depp's daughter in Donnie Brasco.Her film mothers have included Academy award-nominee...
|
Rebecca Cooper |
| Aidan Quinn -Early life:Quinn was born in Rockford, Illinois to devoutly Catholic Irish parents. He was raised in Chicago and Rockford, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly in Ireland. His father was a professor in literature and his mother a homemaker. He has three brothers and a sister. His older...
|
Paul Cooper |
| Robert Downey, Jr. |
Vivian Thompson |
Paul GuilfoylePaul Guilfoyle is an American television and film actor. He is currently a regular cast member of the hit forensic television drama CSI where he plays Captain Jim Brass.-Early life:...
|
Detective Jack Kay |
Plot
Claire Cooper (
Annette BeningAnnette Francine Bening is an American actress.-Early life:Bening was born in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Shirley, a church singer and soloist, and Grant Bening, a sales training consultant and insurance salesman. Her parents, natives of Iowa, were practicing Episcopalians and conservative...
) is a suburban housewife and mother, who illustrates children's stories and is married to a busy airline pilot (played by
Aidan Quinn-Early life:Quinn was born in Rockford, Illinois to devoutly Catholic Irish parents. He was raised in Chicago and Rockford, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly in Ireland. His father was a professor in literature and his mother a homemaker. He has three brothers and a sister. His older...
). Her perfect world begins to unravel, when she finds herself immersed in a world of pain and psychosis following the disappearance and brutal murder of her daughter. Throughout the movie, Claire is haunted by her daughter's murderer, a cross-dressing
serial killerA serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Often, a sexual element is involved with the killings...
of children named Vivian Thompson (Robert Downey, Jr.) and she has several visions of what murders he commits next. When all the doctors she sees think she is
psychoticPsychosis literally means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
, Claire is committed to a mental institution. When she receives a vision of Vivian kidnapping another child, she escapes to track him down and stop him from killing again.
Soundtrack
The score was composed by
Elliot GoldenthalElliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways.-Biography:Elliot Goldenthal was...
. See
In Dreams (Soundtrack)The score to the psychological thriller In Dreams by Elliot Goldenthal is an avante-garde work filled with his trade-mark techniques and dissonance. Composed in 1999 and working again with frequent collaborator Neil Jordan, it also features songs by Roy Orbison and The Andrews Sisters.-The...
Roy OrbisonRoy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter and musician, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly / country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records...
's
In Dreams"In Dreams" is a song composed and sung by rock and roll performer Roy Orbison. An operatic ballad of lost love, it was released as a single on Monument Records in February 1963. It became the title track on the album In Dreams, released in July of the same year...
plays during the credits.