Sophie, a teenage girl, has a dream in which she sees a man raking leaves by a swimming pool. She suddenly starts floating up to the sky and cries out to the man for help, revealing that he is her father Paul, a professor of evolutionary biology at a local university.
When Paul learns that a former colleague is writing an article on a topic he had discussed with her many years earlier, he seeks to confront her but instead begs her for some recognition. Paul's journalist ex-girlfriend Claire spots him with his wife Janet and tells him he appears in her dreams. With his permission, she writes an article about the experience. Soon, hundreds of strangers come forward to name Paul as the man they see their dreams. Paul enjoys the media coverage this brings, but is frustrated by consistently being depicted in the dreams as passive and uninteresting. In interviews with some of his students, he learns that their dreams sometimes feature disasters occurring or the dreamers asking Paul for help, only for him to remain emotionless and unhelpful.
Janet asks Paul why he does not appear in her dreams, and describes her fantasy of Paul rescuing her while wearing the oversized suit worn by David Byrne in the 1984 Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. Later that evening, a mentally ill man who has seen Paul in his dreams breaks into their house with a knife, raising concerns about the risks of his fame. Paul meets with a PR firm in the hopes of securing a book deal, but they instead attempt to convince him to advertise Sprite on social media. Molly, a young assistant at the firm, tells Paul that she has erotic dreams about him; he attempts to re-enact them for her, but prematurely ejaculates and leaves her apartment in shame.
Paul is enraged to learn that his former colleague has published a high-profile paper on the subject about which he was thinking of writing his book. His presence in people's dreams becomes violent and sadistic, and he becomes vilified, being placed on leave after students refuse to attend his classes. Bystanders are bothered by his presence in public, resulting in a brawl at a diner. After Janet's career is affected, she asks Paul to issue a public apology, but he angrily refuses. Paul has a nightmare in which he is hunted and killed by a version of himself wielding a crossbow and subsequently releases a self-pitying apology video. Humiliated, Janet throws him out of the house. Paul forces his way into his daughter's school play but accidentally injures a teacher in the process and is restrained, becoming further vilified.
Some time later, Paul ceases to appear in people's dreams. His own dream experience is revealed to have led to the discovery of a shared subconsciousness, and dreams have become an advertising space through the use of technology. Janet is separated from Paul and is dating a co-worker. Paul travels to France for a book tour to promote his book Dream Scenario, which he learns has been retitled Je suis ton cauchemar (I Am Your Nightmare) without his consent. The book is pitifully thin in the translated volume and his signing event has been moved to the dingy basement of the bookstore. Nevertheless, fans line up for his signed copies. Paul uses "dream travel" technology to enter one of Janet's dreams and rescue her while wearing the oversized suit. As he floats away, much like Sophie did in her first dream, Paul declares that he wishes the dream were reality.
Dream Scenario premiered as the opening film in the Platform Prize program at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2023.[9][10][11]A24 distributed it in the United States with a limited release on November 10, 2023, followed by an expanded release on November 22.[12][5] Distribution in Canada, New Zealand and Australia was handled by VVS Films.[13]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 233 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10.The website's consensus reads: "Come to Dream Scenario for career-highlight work from Nicolas Cage—and leave mulling over everything it has to say about pop culture's fickle whims."[14]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[15]
Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal called the film "a bold statement that is bound to make a name" for Borgli.[16]Peter Bradshaw, in his review of the film in The Guardian, called it "very enjoyable" and a "smart film about the uncanny experience of fame."[17] Peter Debruge of Variety noted that "Borgli shoots the dreams no different from the waking moments, creating a kind of mind game for audiences, who must determine at any given moment whether the scene in question is real or imagined."[18]
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote that the film is "often funny and frequently surreal" but said that Borgli had "more ideas than space to execute them," leading to a third act that feels "overloaded and indecisive of where it wants to land." Catsoulis also wrote that the erotic scene between Paul and Molly "could make you want to put your eyes out."[19]
Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that the film was a “clever, adroitly executed taxonomy of contemporary fame.” Yet, Hornaday followed up with some criticism of the film's screenwriting. “The more far-out "Dream Scenario" gets, the more viewers might wish that Borgli would simply keep his focus on the warp and woof of the Matthewses' marriage."[20]
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