Rob: The trailer for Dream House is not very good. The scenes that make it look stylized and artful, with the two girls in what appears to be chipping paint, are not very adequate representations of the movie. Also, even more annoyingly, the trailer gives away a twist. That was a pretty big problem for me while watching. The way the movie was set up, once they got to the part after the twist I found myself not caring about the movie for a while. It did eventually pull me back in when they got to the explanation of the story, but by this time I felt less connected.
The writing really gave me some issues, too. Characters exclaimed the surprises in the plot in their dialogue. In one scene, Rachel Weisz’s character shouts to Daniel Craig’s character a plot point in a way that seemed like it was more for the audiences benefit than Craig’s. Even the children have a moment when they are talking about their names in which they detail part of the explanation of the twist. So, any enjoyment you could get out of deciphering the films clues is kind of taken away has they are handed to you.
It was almost like the actors were in a comedy sketch most of the time. The things that the writer came up with for this movie were really far out there. Explanations of the twist and character interactions were weird. Even after you get a sense of why that could be, it still leaves an unsettling feeling over the entire thing. The actual plot of the film wasn’t bad, if it was dissected and formed into a better script the movie could have been okay. But, as it stood, everything else about the writing really held down any clever idea that might have been buried in there.
Lindsay: Dream House is just a movie that has a buttload of issues. I was really open going into the film for a few reasons. I was ready to see a decent horror based thriller, the cast seemed legit, and the trailer seemed to suggest some fairly engaging albeit familiar concepts. What Dream House results in however, is a very messy film, with nothing to say. There are two twists in the film, one is given away entirely in the film’s trailer, and the other can be seen a mile away. Also, one overriding blunder in this film is the score. It’s absolutely awful because it’s either completely absent when it’s needed or inappropriately melodramatic.
Craig, Weiz, Watts and Elias Koteas are all either underutilized or not trying which made me wonder what they could have possibly been attracted to with this film’s script. I looked into it after I watched the film and read that the main cast and director conflicted so much with the direction and editing of the studio, Morgan Creek, that they refused to even do press for the film. So that’s never a good sign…
Most of the film I was just saying ‘why?’ not because I didn’t follow the plot, but because I couldn’t figure out what the point was. The rest of the time I was just hoping Daniel Craig was gonna take his shirt off again.
Jess: This film can be summed up as the equivalent to an episode of The Ghost Whisperer. It could have been interesting if it was made in a style similar to Sheridan’s older work, such as Brothers, but if you read the link Lindsay posted, his directorial control was taken away by the studio. Well, they seriously fucked up. I can’t imagine that these three actors and Sheridan would sign on for a project with this film’s vision. The studio not only took it in a lame direction with no suspense, but ruined everything it might have had going for it with its misguided and over-sharing trailers and tv spots. It sucks that these 4 people now have to take credit for a movie they want nothing to do with.
