My Review: Dream House (5/10)

¨Once upon a time, there were two girls who lived in a house¨

I was really disappointed with the trailer of Dream House. It gave away too much and I would`ve preferred not to know as much as I did going into the movie because the first 45 minutes of the film are totally wasted thanks to the trailer which gave away the twist that happens about midway through the movie. I have no idea what the producers were thinking about when they did this. I don`t know if it was because of the trailer, but everything was obvious and predictable from the beginning which took away much of the suspense and thrills. If you haven’t seen the trailer going into this movie then I think you`re better off, but I still wouldn`t recommend this film unless you are a fan of any of the actors or Oscar nominated director Jim Sheridan. Sheridan is known for making hit or miss films; his latest films Brothers was great, but before that he directed the mediocre Get Rich or Die Tryin. One thing is for sure, he always works with some talented actors; and that is perhaps the best thing about Dream House, its cast: Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, and Rachel Weisz. The weakest link is the script which could have been great if written by a talented writer, but David Louka isn`t known for writing interesting scripts. The story had a lot of potential, but the delivery was just poor and everything became predictable. The film was saved from disaster by the strong cast, but I still wasn`t pleased with the end product.

Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) decides to quit his publishing job in the big city and move to a quiet country house with his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz), and two daughters Trish (Taylor Geare) and Dee Dee (Claire Geare) and becoming a writer. They seem to be living a perfect life, but one night one of his daughters claims she`s seen a man outside staring at the house. At first Will doesn’t pay attention, but after beginning to see things himself he begins investigating the house. Someone is definitely outside stalking the place. He discovers that about five years ago a family was murdered in that very house: a young wife, two daughters, and the father who became the prime suspect. His name was Peter Ward and police never seemed to gather enough evidence to lock him in, but he was institutionalized at a mental hospital. Will begins investigating and discovers that Peter has been released from the institution and is convinced that is the man who has been threatening his home. In the meantime his neighbor, Ann (Naomi Watts), seems to know what happened that terrible night but isn`t willing to tell him the whole truth. As Will continues to uncover the secrets that the house hides he begins making some unsettling revelations.

Dream House is a very predictable film and in my opinion the cast was wasted in this film because they could have made a much more interesting thriller with a decent script. Instead the producers ended up making a movie we`ve seen hundreds of times before. It was a cheap imitation of Scorcese`s Shutter Island. I couldn’t help but compare what was going on with so many other similar films. Ever since The Sixth Sense, producers have tried to find better twists for their thrillers, but have mostly failed to do so (with the exception of Shutter Island and The Others). Dream House is supposed to be a thriller but it has little thrills, it`s supposed to be a mystery but the real mystery is why the producers decided to reveal so much in the trailers. There are a lot of things that went wrong in this film, but I guess Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz won`t be complaining since they got married shortly after working together in this film. I guess some movies are much more fun to make than to watch. I am still waiting for a decent 2011 thriller, this was definitely not it. This isn’t a scary movie either, like some people might expect from a haunted house film. It`s a plain suspense thriller that gives away a lot of the thrills in its trailer. Enough said.

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