StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

geekwoman My best friend and I sat down to watch this film, and 15 minutes in, were were sitting in disbelief that this film was even made.Most distinctly, why is Joseph Lees the object of her desires?? No backstory, no explanation as to how they came to their obsessions with one another, and it seemed so ham handedly handled as to be laughable.The story went nowhere. The characters would go from good to bad, hot to cold, flirting to obsessed in the blink of an eye with no reason. What were these people's motivations?The music was EXTREMELY overbearing, and the cut-action slow motion edits looked like a bad student film.WARNING! small spoiler ahead: as my friend and I were watching we were yelling at the screen, and when we come to the scene where Harry is passed out on the bed after his lustful romp with the trampy girl (BTW, where did *that* come from?) and Eva walks into the room, I yelled "Smell his fingers!" in my crass way, and to my utter shock and disbelief, she did. That right there ruined the entire movie for me. That was really bad. Seriously bad.

Lee-107 Film-making is all about Waiting they say. So is Love. This film epitomizes the seemingly unending Wait for the Right Man - that one man who signifies all that is beautiful and pure and noble of mind and body - someone worth living and fighting for. For Eva this Wait has even more poignance because she knows who that man is...that he's not just a figment of her imagination, but a living breathing man named Joseph Lees - someone whom she knows can broaden the horizons of her restricted world and love her for who she is and not for what he derives from her(which is how Harry loves her).The case against Harry is not predetermined. It is established gradually. There are some touching moments between Eva and him when he's actually likeable. The scene in which he takes Eva out of the crowded boxing room is one such incident. Harry is at once boyish and likeable and selfish and despicable. Lee Ross has brought out these shades in his character brilliantly. As much as it is Eva's story, it is also the story of Joseph Lees. And it is Rupert Graves, in the title role, who makes this film for what it is. He is a Dream(don't mean to pun!) in the film! I had only seen him in Louis Malle's 'Damage' which he did 7 years before 'Dreaming...', a film in which he looked much younger, though he was completely overshadowed by the oh-so-powerful Jeremy Irons who played his father. For the audience to feel any empathy whatsoever for Eva for dreaming of Joseph Lees for so long, the actor had to be someone for whom the audience would feel the same. And Rupert Graves is absolutely divine in the role! It is because of him that the audience too gets involved in Eva's quest for Joseph Lees. In any film of this sort, deriving empathy for the characters is everything. It is to the credit of Eric Styles, the director that he has managed that. From the beginning you know that these two people, Eva and Joseph *have to* be together. You laud Janie, Eva's little sister(wonderfully played by Lauren Richardson) in her efforts to bring them together. You frown at Eva's father who unknowingly acts as an obstacle between them. Samantha Morton is excellent as Eva. It must be tough to act in a film where you have to cry so much and make it look real. She manages that. Her convulsive fit of tears in the end just before she rejoins Joseph is very well rendered by Morton. She has rendered the character with due grace and sensitivity. Cinematography and music are two of the other wonders of this film. The former has added to the atmospheric quality of the film, capturing well the wild undulating beauty of the Isle of Man where the film was shot. The music has added beautiful lyrical cadences to the emotions in the film. Not surprisingly it is composed by a master-composer like Zbigniew Preisner whose music for Kieslowski's 'Blue' and other films is equally beautiful. Worth dreaming....!!

raisishini I have recently seen the movie on television, and after the first time, I found myself compelled to rent the movie, so I did. I find the characters Joseph and Eva to be utterly captivating. The cinematography of the film perfectly captured their passion, their desire, their unextinguishable love. Lee Ross perfectly played the character Harry Flite in regards to capturing the character's desperation, and maddening obsession. Ross captured the character so perfectly that it made me despise the character. With all this said and done, I found the ending to be one of two things, thus bringing me to an undecisive state. Other than that, the movie is a must see for the melancholic ambiance of the film is undeniable.

lstein-2 Another transcendent performance from Samantha Morton (she was also the female lead in Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown").This is a truly lovely film, "small" in the sense that only a few characters and their lives are affected by the love triangle, but "large" in the sense that it will strike a familiar chord for many viewers. Morton's face seems to show every thought or feeling that passes through her.Eva (Morton) experiences both ends of an obsessive love relationship. She has been dreaming of her glamorous-seeming second cousin Joseph Lees (Rupert Graves in a fine performance) since a girlhood visit. A neighboring young pig farmer (Lee Ross)adores Eva; his attentions are charming but uninvited.I had truly never heard of this film when it came on TV late one night - and was delighted that I stayed up late to see it through to the end. I recommend you seek it out to do the same.Beautiful cinematography in a quiet film, written and directed with a restrained, well-modulated hand.