Up North ~ Life in Minnesota

I accidentally rented a horrible movie this weekend. I say “accidentally” in the sense that the description on the case didn’t indicate one of my most despised movie devices—the “dream” or “unreality” theme. This is the lazy screenwriter’s ticket to freedom. It opens up all possibilities because there are essentially no rules, and no point. You show 10 minutes of Character X living life normally, then suddenly he/she is plunged into this unbelievable nightmare where nothing is as it seems.

While the audience (me) is hoping, and praying, that this is building to some sort of revelation, Character X is plagued with a seemingly random assortment of strange happenings. It’s easy to find clues to Character X’s predicament where no clues exist. So while you’re pondering, piecing together your own much better ending, the filmmakers unveil that Character X is in a comatose state, lying in some hospital. Shortly after the first 10 minutes of reality, something bad happened, and Character X slipped into this never-ending nightmare. Yippee!

This same basic formula has been used countless times, with few variations, and little originality. It should have been retired long ago, however, every year some inspired hack gets crazy ideas for scenes and probably doesn’t have the creativity to piece them together without resorting to the dreaded “dream” bit. Since this is reality, all I can hope for is that they do a better job of writing the synopsis, so that I may gleefully avoid it.