Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Dream a Little Dream
Tagged: Film.
US movie (1989). Vestron/Lightning. Pr D E Eisenberg, Marc Rocco. Exec pr Lawrence Kasanoff, Ellen Steloff. Dir Rocco. Screenplay Eisenberg, Daniel J Franklin, Rocco. Starring Corey Feldman (Bobby Keller), Piper Laurie (Gina Ettinger), Jason Robards (Coleman Ettinger), Meredith Salenger (Leni). 110 mins. Colour.
Eccentric Coleman is researching the Dream state, believing that if he and wife Gina can enter the dream existence they might achieve Immortality. As they experiment one night, highschool bombshell Leni and almost-dropout Bobby bump into each other nearby and suffer mild concussion. On awakening, Bobby's body now contains Coleman's mind. Something of a similar Identity Exchange appears to have occurred between Leni and Gina: Leni is still Leni, but is troubled by some of Gina's memories. Coleman and Bobby meet several times in a dream Reality (much like ours, but shot through a blue filter and with what looks like toilet paper draped everywhere): Coleman is keen to regain his true identity, Bobby less so. There are various adventures of potential interest to ethnologists studying courtship displays among US highschool students before the status quo ante is restored by means of an unusually feeble plot device. Dream a Little Dream is jerkily directed, poorly plotted and has nothing new to add beyond the (excellent) forays into a reified dreamland; there is a sense that an originally intelligent screenplay may have been, during filming, compromised into mediocrity and beyond. [JG]