My vote is somehow better than I would give if it were not for the acting.The story, I'm afraid is sort of a letdown and in the days of virtual reality seems far too dated. Somebody getting absorbed by his dreams feels so obsolete in these days when there are so much more real and effective ways to dilute your mind.The final catch does not really come as a surprise, it's something like "the perfect kiss is the kiss of death", Gary finally ends his quest - or was it Mel's - and ends up in the perfect dream.I've not yet made up my mind if this movie is a satire, mocking its characters, or if it is a more serious drama. In the best case it would be both, in the worst none actually and just talky I'm afraid. My personal view on dreams, which gets also touched in the course of the story, is that they do encourage you to make them real.

The Good Night is Jake Paltrow's first attempt at writing and directing, and stars Martin Freeman, Gwenyth Paltrow, Penelope Cruz, and Danny DeVito; a star-studded cast! The movie opens with a group of people partaking in a 'This Is Your Life' or 'E! True Hollywood Story' style show about Gary, a former popstar and member of a pop band. Gary now composes jingles for an advertising company, and is married to Dora (Paltrow), and is still good friends with for band mate Paul (Simone Pegg). As Gary's marriage unravels, he begins to have lucid dreams about a beautiful girl, who at first hasn't got a voice, but beautiful, luscious hair and full lips, who later reveals herself to be Anna (Cruz). Gary goes to a lucid dream class to figure out what his dreams mean, and meets Mel (DeVito). With the help of Mel, Gary goes in search of Anna, the girl of his dreams, and meets Melodia, who looks just like the woman in his dreams.You'd expect a story like that would be fascinating and hard to draw your eyes away from, but it's on in the living room as I write this, and I can't seem to draw my eyes to it or bother about it anymore! The cast may be striking and this may be Jake's nice first attempt, and you can tell the work and thought are there, but there's nothing to back it up; no passion for what is going on, it doesn't draw in the crowd and the audience isn't hanging onto the cast's every word!

I'm a major Charlie Kaufman fan, enough so that I am willing to see other filmmakers lightly tread the territory he has mastered while waiting for his next masterpiece. Zach Helms' script for Stranger Than Fiction (8/10) is the rom-com answer to the theme of art and reality being interchangeable, as expressed also in Adaptation (9/10). Jake Paltrow's The Good Night is an indie-dramedy look at the subconscious vs. reality theme CK nails in Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine (both 10/10). This film tells the story of Gary (Martin Freeman), a 30 something ex-rocker scoring commercials in New York. His stagnant relationship with an art-dealer girlfriend (Gwynneth Paltrow) and his complicated, brotherly friendship with an egotistical ex-bandmate and boss (Simon Pegg) give him little fulfillment. So he turns to a lucid dreams with an exotic dream girl (Penelope Cruz). But when both the dreams and his real life seem to unravel, he struggles to fix both.The story is certainly not innovative, but it is well-developed, and the characters are interesting enough. The movie feels very authentic and sincere, which makes it worth sitting through. Jake Paltrow is not a particularly inventive director, but the camera-work is generally competent and the dream sequences are nicely photographed.The real highlights of the film are the subtle supporting performances by director's sister Gwen and the brilliant Simon Pegg. Freeman's role is pretty typical of his other work, but he carries the movie reasonably well. Devito and Cruz are both dull and distracting in their roles. It would have been better if their parts had been given to lesser-known actors who would have cared more about the production.A rental of this movie is certainly worth 90 minutes of your evening.

The movie is amazing on most levels. It's actually a vision into a manic depressed soul who sees a light at the end of the tunnel. The light is in the form of the dream girl Anna (Penelope Cruz, who is absolutely stunning once again in this flick).He has a girlfriend that he has burned every bridge but they still have a deep love blanketed with layers of strife and arguments. Instead of working things through the ventures deep into his mind and tastes something in his dreams that he can get enough of. The dreams start taking control and start getting in the way, The entire time he feels that Anna can save him from his own routine depressed life.The movie starts getting a little weird when Anna walks into his life in human form.In my opinion this is a great movie for peering into the mind of a semi psychotic depressed soul. Exactly what a film should do, make you think on different levels.