Dreams is a film rife with missed opportunities to say something important. Instead, the shallowly written characters do little to advance the story, with the performances by Jessica Chastain and Isaac Hernández as the film’s only saving grace.

A powerful socialite, Jennifer (Jessica Chastain), and a promising ballet dancer, Fernando (Isaac Hernández), begin a dangerous affair. When he secretly crosses the US-Mexico border, she takes desperate measures to protect their future together.

For the most part, Dreams is an engaging drama that examines the power dynamics of a doomed relationship between a powerful woman and a younger immigrant man. But then, partway through the third act, Michel Franco’s film takes such a neck-breaker of a turn that it leaves you in a state of utter befuddlement. We have a potentially great film about the mistakes of forcing personal desires to overcome the never-ending societal realities that we live in, yet it’s squandered.

You think you have a grasp of what Franco is trying to say here, that despite their sexual attraction and sexual chemistry with one another, Jennifer and Fernando’s relationship is an ultimately doomed one. But for it to take such a nonsensical turn is maddening at best.

The film flails because of the script, which does neither character any good, to be honest. Both Jennifer and Fernando are painted as these hollow characters. Other than wanting to have Fernando for herself and to create this dream little life, Jennifer is as non-descript a lead character as you will find. What is sketched out is the bare minimum, with the audience having to do the donkey work to work Jennifer out. She is a divorced, childless socialite who is trying to make herself important in her father’s eyes through her work with the charity, which results in a competitive relationship with her brother (the under-utilised Rupert Friend).

So, when she has the chance to wield power through her relationship with Fernando and the charity, she grabs it and tries to dictate the terms of her relationship. She pretends to get him the support he needs, both emotionally and on the immigration side. The only note we can truly remember from Jennifer is that she is a charity head who is helping Mexican and Latin American artists, dancers, and creatives find a way to the United States to succeed. Yet has never bothered to learn a lick of Spanish and refuses to have an interpreter around her to understand conversations. So, immediately, our lead actress is terribly misguided in life and not very likeable.

Couple this with Fernando, who has a little more depth to his character but is still pretty shallow. A young man who wants to be accepted and to thrive in this new country, to walk with his partner wherever and not be hidden, like a dirty little secret (despite being an illegal immigrant). So, when Jennifer doesn’t immediately show him off to the world, he leaves to try to survive illegally without her. A seemingly proud man who hopes his talent can get him far. Yet, what we see and experience of Fernando pales in comparison to what he does in that final act. He is a character that there just isn’t enough to grab hold of, which is an issue the entire film has.

Franco has tossed in themes like a reversed gender dynamic, social and racial dynamics, and it is all perfectly fine; however, again, it is so thinly written that it becomes frustrating as the audience has to do just a bit too much work, which the film should be providing. The idea that hits hardest is the classic one of two people in love who, despite societal issues, couldn’t stay apart from one another. But in Dreams, it is overcompensated purposefully and needlessly.

The saving grace for Dreams, though, is the performances from Chastain and Hernández; even with the limited material they are given, you feel something for the characters, for when Jennifer is lost and trying to get Fernando back, you believe in her. She compels you to keep watching, even when very little is going on. She makes the audience consider her motives and implications. Equally, Isaac Hernández is great here as a young man who is simply trying to do better for himself and has fallen for the person who holds all of the power. When they are together, you are engaged, and it is what causes the frustration of what really could have been.

The violence and sharp turn in the final act is the greatest misstep of all and one the film doesn’t recover from. You get what Franco is doing with it, but it doesn’t work. He wants to show us what happens when the power dynamic is turned, but it’s so drastically different to the rest of the film that it becomes a struggle to understand why we are given THAT scene. It’s such a shame as well, as said, there could be something here, a film about desire over realities, but it’s smothered down in nothingness that by the end, like Jennifer, you become numb to it all.

★★ 1/2

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