Paprika

IIt’s hard to find directors who can convey the complexity of dreams on screen, but a few come to mind such as Michael Gondry and David Lynch. You see, dreams are incredibly personal, painfully honest and rarely make sense. So when I heard that Satoshi Kon was working on a movie about dreams I was extremely exited. His ability to tell stories based on memories, urban legends and paranoid fantasies is remarkable and his ongoing partnership with Madhouse Studios ensured that it would look spectacular too. “With proper creative freedom this movie could be amazing”, I thought.

 

Unfortunately it’s a lack of restraint that hurts this film. While it’s story of futuristic dream therapists and industrial espionage is visually arresting, the plot strains and warps trying to match science fiction with art house sensibilities. In the near future, an apparatus that allows people to share dreams has been stolen and next thing you know people start to go insane, finding their consciousness merged into a bizarre parade of delusional fantasies. Although the movie starts out as a cool cyberpunk mystery, it frequently gets bogged down by clumsy expository dialog that tries to explain the science of sleep. No such provision was necessary; in “The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” we where satisfied believing that a colander with wires was a high tech memory erasing apparatus. Also, for fans of Satoshi Kon’s brilliant “Paranoia Agent”, this movie’s second act will seem almost parallel, without the benefit of character development.

 

In the end I recommend this movie to any grownup that enjoys their animation peppered with philosophy and adult situations. Some scenes are felled by the movie’s excessive enthusiasm, but other scenes are extremely rewarding; such as a parade of household objects, animals, and dolls reminiscent of Mesoamerican folklore. That lively scene sums up the movie well as Hayao Miyazaki meets Sigmund Freud, with style to spare.