Rating: R | Runtime: 105 minutes
Release Date: August 16th, 2006 (France) / September 29th, 2006 (USA)
Studio: Gaumont/Columbia TriStar Films / Warner Bros.
Director(s): Michel Gondry
Writer(s): Michel Gondry

Will you marry me when you’re seventy and have nothing to lose?

Michel Gondry’s first foray as a solo writer/director has finally been released outside the festival circuit. The Science of Sleep was created without the help of frequent collaborator Charlie Kaufmann whose scripts for Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind were brought to the screen by Gondry’s visual prowess. There’s a void apparent as the story is not as tight or coherent (if you could call a Kaufmann script either), but this isn’t a detriment to the finished product. Gondry has delved deep into his subconscious and deeply hidden emotions to create a magical journey between reality and dream of two people coming together to awkwardly start a relationship. His secrets and embarrassing memories are lyrically woven together as a mesmerizing piece of visual poetry that could only have come from the mind of a true dreamer.

The Science of Sleep won’t be for everyone. While true to life and relatable for kindred spirits, the film isn’t accessible for those unwilling to travel into fantasy. We’re constantly shown a blurring of reality’s border while switching between three languages, actors, animation, and a combination of all these elements simultaneously. Anyone who’s seen Gondry’s music videos (I highly recommend his Director’s Series volume of old work alongside friends Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham) will be familiar with the otherworldly effects used. Everything is done by hand and meticulously animated and spliced together via camera tricks or blue screen. Gondry pours his heart into what’s on-screen without it becoming a pretentious head trip. This film hits home with its melding of comedy, drama, laughter, and heartbreak.

Give credit to actors Gael García Bernal (wonderful as always) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (a radiant as she was in 21 Grams). Gondry trusts them with his soul and they trust the material in turn. Where the movie could have pushed its absurdity to unacceptable lengths, these two ground it with truly heart-wrenching emotion. Bernal’s Stéphane can’t seem to delineate between reality and dream. It causes him to accidentally speak truth at the wrong moments while paranoia and low self-worth bring chaos to situations that were working. Gainsbourg’s Stéphanie also has a sense of duplicity being a woman who cannot allow someone she loves close enough to hurt her, so she hurts him instead.

These two are meant for each other, but it could never work outside of a dream. Stéphane is a child who’s emotions flip at a second’s turn and Stéphanie is a stubborn woman who can’t realize she’s leading others on by showing her affection only to shut down when it’s returned. It’s heart-breaking when she’s in Bernal’s head apologizing for what her real-life counterpart has done because you realize she truly doesn’t know what she’s doing to him. Likewise, when he turns on her for incidents he manifested in his own mind, the hurt of finally opening up to him shows on her face. But recognition is always too late.

Mention should be made for Alain Chabat too as his comic relief is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise solemn reality. He knows how a relationship of this kind will end, but he tries to help his friend through it anyway. Gondry has also outdone himself with his animations. The craft undertaken is amazing with worlds made from cardboard tubes, liquid from cellophane bits, and reality from knitted fabric. He’s put his stamp on this film creatively, physically, and spiritually.

Love is a complicated entity that sometimes needs more than just love itself. People cross paths in life for moments of utter happiness that ultimately turn to pain from one’s inability to allow themselves that joy. The Science of Sleep is a film that will stay with you and make you think of those moments you let slip by. The final frame leaves hope for the future, though, and the knowledge that your past loves can be revisited in memory. They cannot be erased.

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Alain Chabat (Guy) and Gael García Bernal (Stephane) in director Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep, a Warner Independent Pictures release. Photo credit: Etienne George.