Bad Titles : Bad Movies - On DVD

The Good Night (2007)
Martin Freeman is miserable in a marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow (drab and brunette) and is experiencing recurring dreams about Anna (Penelope Cruz). He tries to enhance the experience and discovers “lucid dreaming”. When he discovers Cruz is an actual person (a model) and meets her, decisions must be made. The film is structurally flawed from the beginning: People are interviewed about Freeman’s character, but without context, it’s a waste. But Danny DeVito (a lucid dreamer) and Simon Pegg (a womanizing friend) are funny in support. Cruz is perfectly cast as the object of desire. When Freeman watches her dance to The Troggs “With a Girl Like You” at a club, it’s perfect cinema. Before and after that moment, the film unsuccessfully tries to say something about being satisfied with reality and exploring midlife crisis. The subject of dreams is an inherently interesting one, mystifying in their origins and importance. But as written and directed by Jake Paltrow (yes - Apple’s uncle), the film is too meandering and mostly plays like a teenage boy’s fantasy. C

(Click below for The Hottest State)

The Hottest State (2007)
Ethan Hawke writes and directs this film based on a book written by Austin-native Ethan Hawke. William (Mark Webber) is a Texan-born actor working in New York who meets and falls in love with a struggling musician Sarah (Catalina Sandino Moreno). After a brief courtship and soft-core adventure in Mexico, she breaks up which sends him reeling. He travels to Texas, seeking out his estranged father (Hawke again) who he has not spoken to since he was a child. The conclusions are neither profound nor interesting. Some of the cinematography of the changing seasons is impressive, but watching this couple bicker is unbearable. Obviously autobiographical, the only thing more depressing than contemplating the decay of family and relationships in America is watching a talented actor disappear up his own rectum with self-absorption. D+