HottWwjdIam
There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
maryhill-43394
So we were expecting a little bit more but it still does the job in being a fine film.The cast is good but the ending was a bit average for us, although i did like the concept of the story and how it ended up being but in the end for the star power it could have been way better yet also way worse.
bkflana
Good suspenseful movie for the whole family. It had many twists and turns along the way. This was refreshing to see something well planned without all the gore that some movies have. The closure to the ending was not planned as well as the rest of the movie. I would have liked to have seen a better ending. Thanks for a good escape from real world for a bit.
Gregory Mucci
What happens when you take a re-hashed who-done-it ghost story, throw in accomplished Irish director Jim Sheridan (Bloody Sunday, In America) and add an overly controlling production company? You get Dream House, a psychological ghost story centered around a sloppy murder mystery that offers a keyholes worth of insight into a potentially fruitful script. Without any press promotions, interviews, or test screens, Dream House quickly became a film destined for the gutter. What came out of all the tinkering and reworking is a film with an A-list cast that continually struggle and fail in their attempts to lift their film to something above the abysmal, plodding, and completely forgettable film it is.Beginning with the willful resignation of publisher Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) so he could spend more time with his family and his novel, Dream House introduces us to our titular house and the family that now resides within (Rachel Weisz, Taylor Geare, and Claire Astin Geare). Soon afterwards the daughters begin seeing a man lurking outside, and Will encounters a group of stereotypical goth kids who lead him on to the misdeeds that have occurred within the houses walls. With help from neighbor Ann Paterson (Naomi Watts) and her daughter Chloe (Rachel G. Fox), Will begins to dig deep into the murder of the home's previous family, only to discover something far worse.What plays out throughout the rest of the film is an endurance of patience, one that has no real reward or payoff. We are treated to a loving family and what they do within their home, to the investigative search of a man who must protect those he loves. All of this builds to almost nothing of what we have come to look for in a psychological thriller. Gone are the tense feelings, unnerving thoughts, white knuckles, and inevitable head rush as the story takes us in another direction. I almost don't know who to blame for this absence of anything resembling psychological horror, but Dream House seems to keep it under the floorboards, hidden from anyone who cares to enjoy its company.Surprising me the most is Daniel Craig as Will Atenton, who six years earlier gave us an amazing portrayal of crazy and paranoid in The Jacket, easily outshining its lead actor, Adrian Brody. What we are given as a representation of insane is slicked back greasy hair, a worn army jacket, and an empty stone look. Dream House also never bothers to truly show us a real descent into madness, with everything sort of blurring slowly into one mishmash of botched storytelling. Even Naomi Watts comes off dead in her tracks, delivering lines like the pouring of molasses; slow and wasteful. Whether or not you put blame on Jim Sheridan who has delivered excellent films in the past, or the production company Morgan Creek, Dream House is a film that delivers on little it has to offer. What begins as a potentially promising ghost story ends up unraveling into a yawn inducing attempt at psychological thrills. When we aren't being dragged along for the chase as one man uncovers the truth, we are treated to sappy, nightmare inducing family moments that feel carved out of an L.L. Bean catalog. Behind all of this poor execution is a small glimpse of what could have been an enjoyable yet been-there-done-that film, a glimpse that only adds to the disappointment. Dream House never manages to get its foundation established, causing the rest of it to sag and eventually collapse on to its own emptiness.
Leofwine_draca
In a bid to be all fresh and original on us, and to avoid predictable cliché, DREAM HOUSE turns out to be a right mess of a movie. The set-up is a familiar one indeed: Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz move to a rural dwelling with their kids, only to learn of sinister shenanigans in the neighbourhood. The house was the scene of a brutal massacre and the killer's still on the loose.So far, so predictable, but halfway through there's a big twist that you won't see coming. Unfortunately after this stage believability goes right out of the window with one muddled, nonsensical idea after the other. It becomes a pure fantasy film, one that bears no semblance to reality or indeed has a proper structure or plot either. We're supposed to believe in the dumbest character actions and the most ridiculous situations.Needless to say, nobody comes out of this looking good, particularly the interfering producers and the writers. Craig and Weisz turn in staid and dull performances and even reliable supporting stars like Elias Koteas and Martin Csokas are wasted. The less said about Naomi Watt's insipid turn the better. No, this turns out to be a godawful thriller and one to avoid at all costs.
