Science of Sleep, The

Aroview: A delightfully self-conscious, self-indulged fantasy for cine-wizard Michel Gondry, the director's follow-up to ETERNAL SUNSHINE successfully marries the whimsy of Gael Garcia Bernal’s inability to distinguish dreams from reality with his ongoing courtship of next-door neighbour, the adorable Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Essentially a sustained music video, the film is consistently astonishing as a series of wildly inventive set pieces, each more imaginative than the next, and all adhering to Gondry’s self-styled ‘arts ‘n’ crafts’ aesthetic, where cellophane, corrugated cardboard, and packing foam stand in for everyday objects. Though invariably losing shape with Gondry's head stuck way up in the clouds, as a stuttering romance, Bernal’s awkward negation of Gainsbourg’s elfin charms and his own psychological hang-up as a free-spirited but foggy-headed introvert keeps things suitably grounded amidst the film’s delirious levity.

NZ International Film Festival 2006

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