PremiumDream Scenario movie review: Nicolas Cage is a riot in fun but heavy social satire
Dream Scenario, which released in theatres in India in January, is now available to stream on Lionsgate Play
Last Updated: 01.58 PM, Apr 20, 2024
Dream Scenario movie story: Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), a tenured professor of Biology, who has nothing exciting to talk of his career. He holds a PhD, but is not a published academician like most of his classmates – something that eats away at him, but that he hasn’t done anything about. When he then gets a shot at ‘fame’ for his cameos in random people’s dreams, his life changes. But does it take a turn for the better?
Dream Scenario movie review: What could be a better ego boost than becoming the man of everyone’s dreams? What an enviable situation, one might reckon. But then, if your actions, or the lack of it, are as nondescript as you are in real life, that is a bummer. That’s the takeaway that Nicolas Cage, as balding college professor Paul Matthews has when he is first made aware that he’s been popping up in people’s dreams. “I don’t do anything?” is all that concerns him, given that he is either a by-stander or someone walking past nonchalantly in crises situations.
From being the boring lecturer droning on about how animals avoid danger in a herd – a strategy he employs in his life too - to being the most-talked about person, Paul’s life literally overnight – it’s the time it takes for people to dream and realize he was there. His students, even those not taking his subject, are suddenly immersed in his lectures, and Paul begins to enjoy the attention he gets from his new-found ‘fame’.
There’s no plausible explanation for how Paul gets to make guest appearances in the dreams of not only people known to him, but random strangers as well or why his wife and a few others never see him. But all good things must come to an end and so does this phase for Paul, who goes from celebrity to pariah in no time. His stint as a ‘dream-fluencer’ though sparks a range of new technology for brand endorsements in dreams.
Nicolas Cage is at his A-game as the balding, bespectacled professor, who’s always in a jumper and anorak, and is the reason Dream Scenario does not fall apart in the second act when the dreams become nightmares and Paul gets a lot of ‘action’. The film is not a comedy about Cage invading everyone’s dreams; it’s a commentary about the perils of fame in the age of social media, including the cancel culture. It is also about viral content that’s viewed by millions at a time, and forgotten when the next one comes along. What amuses us today, could be the most reviled only hours later depending on the changing climate on social media on what’s acceptable and what’s not at any given point of time.
All’s well with Dream Scenario until the final bit and leaves one a tad unsatisfied. It’s left open-ended and not in the sense of allowing audiences to draw their own conclusions, but rather in terms of not being complete and offering answers. It does make you wonder what the point of it all was.
Dream Scenario movie verdict: Dream Scenario is quite entertaining, but it’s not the most memorable; much like the subjects of the film – social media and dreams. Watch it for Nicolas Cage – he’s fun and engaging.