Michel Gondry likes to mess with people’s heads. In 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” the French filmmaker delved into memory erasure with confusing, beautiful results. In his numerous music videos (Radiohead’s “Knives Out” and The White Stripes’ “The Hardest Button to Button” among them), Gondry often uses complex filming techniques to create intricately layered pieces. And in his latest effort, “The Science of Sleep,” he explores the spaces between dreams and reality, using many of the visual techniques he has experimented with before.

The Spanish-, English- and French-language film follows Stéphane Miroux (played by “The Motorcycle Diaries’” Gael García Bernal), a young artist who returns to Paris from Mexico at the request of his widowed mother.

Though the “art job” she tempts him with turns out to be menial office work, Stéphane entertains himself through both his imaginative, involved dreams and his growing affection for neighbour Stéphanie (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of the inimitable Serge Gainsbourg). The two unite in their creativity, forming a bond that is romantic at times and tragic at others — particularly when Stéphane’s dreams begin to take over his reality.

In the numerous dream sequences, Gondry constructs an entirely unique world with extravagantly detailed set design that all but ignores the sleek style of CGI effects. The sets are, in essence, full-sized versions of eccentric, over-the-top dioramas. There’s a full city made of cardboard, a murderous oversized electric razor, and even a scene in which Stéphane lumbers around violently with two huge papier-mâché-like hands.

To counter this extensive eye candy, Gondry gives us a touching love story. As Stéphane battles with his physche, his relationship with Stéphanie is subject to a set of incredibly affecting highs and lows that are both real and imagined (with the line between the two always blurred).

This film is Gondry at his very best, both as a creative filmmaker and a moving storyteller. In “The Science of Sleep,” he uses fantasy in stunning, innovative ways but firmly grounds it with a love story at the movie’s core. Ironically, Gondry has created a dream-filled romance that is far more real than anything to appear on-screen in recent memory.

9/10






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