The Science Of Sleep is another one hot off the surrealist grill from director Michel Gondry except, unlike his former Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he’s holding the Kaufman.But while Eternal Sunshine had Charlie Kaufman’s writing to hold it down, Gondry’s writing is vaguer, unpinned by those pesky things called ‘narrative’.
It has a sort-of-a-story. Artist Stéphane (Gael García Bernal, Bad Education) moves back to France to be with his mother following the death of his father in Mexico, and ends up across the hall from Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Unfortunately, neither of them have a particularly stable grip on real-life, and reality and fantasy begin to overlap as he attempts to woo her.
The direction is signature Gondry. Hand-held camera, forced perspective, and all sorts of giant-hand, stop-motion, bath-desk weirdness combine to make something that is certainly not without visual splendour. His characters, too, are instantly likeable. His couple's nervous interactions are an utter delight, and our hero's co-workers at the dead-end job his mother squeezes him into are brilliantly funny. Dialogue-wise, it never fails, drawing every laugh and tear effortlessly and creating real emotional connection.
Every scene, likewise, is a joy to watch, and undoubtedly will reveal something new in every viewing. It’s the way they’re pieced together, though, that seem to create the feel that there is, actually, no story to speak of.
It’s really a film that depends on taste. Fans of linear narrative should steer clear. But for those with a taste for the surreal, for extremely likeable characters, and with no compunctions about a film with no ending - and no beginning or middle either - there’s a lot to be found in what basically amounts to a ten minute story mixed with a very good extended music video.
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