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The Good Night (2007) DVD Review
The Good Night (2007) DVD Credits:
The Good Night (2007) Directed by:
Jake Paltrow
The Good Night (2007) Written by:
Jake Paltrow
The Good Night (2007) Cast:
Martin Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Simon Pegg, Penélope Cruz, Danny DeVito
The Good Night (2007) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
The Good Night (2007) DVD Release Date:
31st March 2008
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The Good Night (2007) Synopsis:

Concerns a man's search for perfection in a world where life rarely measures up to the idealized images that constantly bombard us. Pegg and Platrow will be playing supporting roles while Freeman will play a former pop star now reduced to writing advertising jingles amid an early midife crisis.

The Good Night (2007) DVD Review:

I feel slightly scarred from my viewing experience watching The Good Night. This is both a condemnation and a compliment, because it takes a great deal to surprise me, as I have logged enough movie watching hours to put any socially healthy individual to shame. The Good Night takes a turn at a certain point, and as much as I would like to hint at the scene in which this takes place to spare some sentimental soul from the cruel conclusion that life is ultimately painful and it is a curse to achieve a dream in life. The realization from the protagonist that there is much more satisfaction living in dreams is a stark point that takes some faith from the viewer. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as one of my favorite French films, Love Me If You Dare, seems to torture the audience in similar ways. These films are often grueling, torturous, emotional and unsentimental at the same time, and ultimately exhausting. Any time a film can create that much of a reaction it is a good bet that it is doing something right.

Martin Freeman of the original British The Office stars as Gary Sheller, a musician who was once in a rock band but now writes commercial scores and works a dead-end job. Gary lives with his girlfriend Dora (Gwyneth Paltrow), but she hardly ever smiles and treats Gary’s comfort as an inconvenience, if considered at all. It is a painful and familiar relationship that most can recognize; a dying relationship. So when Gary begins having vivid dreams of his “dream” woman, who introduces herself as Anna (Penelope Cruz). Cruz has played the dangerously distracting dream girl in several films, and once again it is great casting, but not as great as the entire sequence in which Gary meets a model that looks exactly like Anna (also played by Cruz). My only complaint is with the terrible trailer released for this film, which showed far too much of this sequence to make it enjoyable and unpredictable as the rest of the film is.

Gary enjoys his dreams so much that he doesn’t want any disturbances, and to Dora’s extreme annoyance he begins soundproofing the bedroom. Another helpful guide in Gary living in his dreams is a lucid dream expert (Danny DeVito) we are led to believe practices a more cutting edge lucid dream practice than the fools who have published books. This dynamic is a nice change from the constant negative energy Gary is getting from Dora and the overtly sexual energy from Anna. DeVito is well paired with the sad but likeable Freeman. There is much more I would like to say about the quirky romantic fantasy The Good Night, but I would hate to ruin anyone’s experience. I can merely say that it deeply affected me and I both loved and hated this enough for mere admiration.

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The Good Night (2007) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

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