We found this on Netflix streaming movies. It has no box office data and appears to have been seen by relatively small audiences. The writer/director is a first-timer.It is about a smart girl who is a recent college graduate at 20 and, encouraged by her rather pushy mom is studying for the LSAT exams. She will be a lawyer, a very good one ... or will she? Is that what she really wants?The story explores her coming to grips with what she really wants to do. When her friends go off in the winter to frolic on beaches she volunteers to go to upstate NY to help her great aunt who recently broke her foot. Mainly to get away from mom's constant "How's the studying coming along?" But the encounters there, with her great aunt and others, helps her see the bigger picture of life.The great aunt is Diane Ladd (nearing 80) as Vera who had been married to a successful author. The college graduate is Eden Brolin as Dora.This is the first time I had seen young Eden, daughter of Josh, and during filming she probably was really 20 or 21. I came away very favorably impressed, she looks great on camera and has good, natural acting chops. The movie succeeds or fails on her performance and in my opinion succeeds very well.

Good movies make it look easy, and really good movies leave you shaking your head wondering how they did it. I Dream Too Much gives us a very young woman who suffers from severe indecision and her elderly aunt who suffers from severe regrets, and it does it without recourse to plot devices and acting choices that might make your teeth hurt. The story is simple and affecting, a deceptively plain frame enclosing greater depths than you'll find in a standard entry from the sub-genres it technically overlaps -- stories of mentors and protégés, crusty yet lovable old people, coming-of-age empties and so on. The makers of I Dream Too Much struck gold in casting -- it's hard to imagine anyone bringing more freshness and honest confusion to the young woman's role than Eden Brolin, just as it is hard to imagine anyone wielding a wise tongue and bitter wit with deadlier accuracy than Diane Ladd.The writer-director, Katie Cokinos, clearly learned a lot from her own experiences of people at both ends of the generational divide. Brolin's character, like most 21-year-olds, can scarcely grasp the bliss of not knowing how many wicked tricks the future will play while it's swallowing the past; instead, she frets over what to do next, unsure of who she is. Ladd, in a fine, astringent late-career turn, looks back in anger as the memory of her late husband, a great writer and all-around dreamboat, is polluted by the Other Woman, now an author flogging a trashy memoir. It's a classic set-up: aunt and niece both have something of value to offer if they can only manage not to alienate and annoy each other half to death.I Dream Too Much benefits a great deal from the choice of Saugerties, New York in winter as its chief location. It's a lovely place, seldom seen on film and full of dormant possibility through most of the film, suddenly released in breathtaking shots of rushing water in the last act. Finally, there is a terrific supporting cast that includes Danielle Brooks, Christina Rouner, and the great James McCaffrey (an actor's actor on this terraplane, an overpaid leading man in a zestier world we are not allowed to visit).

Dora (Eden Brolin) wishes she were somewhere else, but ends up right where she needs to be. Great Aunt Vera (Diane Ladd) pines for the love of her life, but finds new hope with family and friends. Abbey (Danielle Brooks) owns a shop, but finds her lifelong dreams are within her reach. Everyone dreams too much...but is that a bad thing? This film is a lighthearted romp through the post-college, what-do-I-do-with-my-life malaise shared by most artists and thinkers. There's authentic dialogue, and the characters are real people.With a stellar cast, breathtaking cinematography, great characters, and one-liners that elicit real laughs--this is a must-view for everyone!

A real life coming of age film. The main character is 20 years old and has just finished college. Her close friends are embarking on different paths and her mom has her own dreams she wants her daughter to fulfill. The script is beautiful in that it captures real life experiences within family without being over dramatic or too Hollywood. I can picture myself as each one of the characters as a past, current or future me! The cinematography is spectacular. The snowy scenes are dreamy and frequently capture an artistic sense that moves your heart with memories that may not be yours! Don't miss this warming peak into these charming characters' lives.