Science of Sleep

Michel Gondry's (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) latest film tells the story of Stephane, a man who is so wrapped up in his own little world he finds it difficult to tell dreams from reality. And so the film brings us into his world: we spend a fair chunk just in his dreams, with its giant hands, cardboard cameras and bands dressed as kittens.
Yet, beneath this surreal and unreal setting lies one of the most realistic portrayals of life you'll ever see.
"What? Last time I checked, my hands were normal size - or at least not the size of the rest of my body."
Ah, but if we look merely at the setting of the film: the stage, the props, the weather and fail to look deeper, of course that's all we see. Instead, to see a film's true worth, we must examine the characters around which it is based.
So, Stephane: is he actually realistic?
Well first off, tell me how you've spent the last 24 hours. You may:
"I got up, washed/ate, went to work/college, came home, ate, watched TV then slept. "
And while such an answer wouldn't be a lie, it wouldn't be telling the whole truth either. No, in the last 24 hours you may well have been a pirate, flown high above the earth, walked naked into work, and run away from some sort of serial killer... possibly while doing all 3 of the previous things.
Dreams are the most private parts of our lives: even we as individuals sometimes don't know how we spend them. However, they're rarely depicted in films, and if they are it's normally either a prophecy, or so cliche as to be ridiciulous.
Gondry takes us into all of Stephane's world: whether he's awake or asleep. Most of it is ridiculous: of course it is. But it's also realistic.
The second thing he does is to create a central relationship more like the one's I tend to have than any Curtis film has ever managed to achieve. Now, whether that means anyone else can identify with the ridiculous fears Stephane goes through when about to go on a first date, or when he ends up shouting at the source of his affections, I cannot say.
However, the stupid things that often mar two people getting together are again more realistically portrayed here than in anything I've ever seen before. How often have you actually walked into a hotel room to find the woman/man you thought liked you with her boy/girlfriend ala Notting Hill (or in fact Bridget Jones Diary)?
What's that? Never. Perhaps that's part of the fun: the traditional set-up/misunderstanding/pay-off of rom-coms makes for a much better ending the bigger the misunderstanding and the later the pay-off. However, to say their portrayal of relationships is anything like real life is ignorant a best, horrendously stupid at worst.
So the Science of Sleep can be considered a triumph. Why? Because it takes us through the sleep/eat/work cycle we all go through and in doing so gives us the complete picture of Stephane's life. Yes it's weird. But then think about what you dreamt about last night: Is that normal?