When Michel Franco begins to enjoy career retrospectives, one would be hard presssed to find a more quintessential introductory image than the one that opens “Dreams,” the seemingly benign sight of a big rig off to the side of the highway that most cars would pass by without slowing down. It’s always easier not to, but since his incendiary debut “Daniel and Ana,” the consequences of what’s ignored become uglier the longer they’re neglected and he opens a real Pandora’s box with his latest when opening the back of the truck reveals a flatbed full of immigrants looking for safe haven in America, though it hardly appears as if they’ve found it after stepping foot on U.S. soil.
Those who have winced at Franco’s bluntness in the past aren’t likely to be won over by his latest, but the writer/director once again finds his way into a hot potato topic in a most unexpected way, following Fernando (Isaac Hernandez), who steps lightly by trade as a ballet dancer who sees a future for himself in San Francisco after eluding border guards in El Paso. That’s not necessarily a vision that is shared by Jennifer (Jessica Chastain), who has a place for him to stay in the city but is unsettled to learn he crossed over from Mexico City where the two first met, introduced via the dance company her family foundation backs. She is largely unfazed by Fernando’s arrival, slipping into bed with him after seeing he’s already made himself at home unannounced, but unnerved by the thought of making him a part of her life, immediately shielding him from the view of her father (Marshall Bell) and brother (Rupert Friend) with whom she runs the arts nonprofit and far less encouraging of his career than she was across the border.
If there’s anything romantic about “Dreams,” it’s that Franco and Chastain make an incredible match for one another, with the actress able to give a beating heart to the director’s coarser dramatic instincts and in turn is provided the kind of danger zone as a character she clearly relishes. Jennifer is a doozy, seeing Fernando’s trespass less a matter of geography than upsetting the order she’s carefully constructed for her life buffered by privilege, getting to feel good about contributing to cultural causes far and wide but content to live at a remove, and Chastain balances the icy imperviousness of someone who could survive in isolation, but the burning desire to have something a little more. (In a sign of how well the film knows what it is, it takes its title from one of its most clever conceits of a pair of subtly integrated dream sequences where Fernando can only hope to practice for a major company while Jennifer fantasizes about responsibility-free sex when the notion that there are no strings attached is as arousing as any carnal pleasure she could take away from it.)
The usual concerns around Franco’s work crop up when both Fernando and Jennifer have little personality outside of how they’re defined by the situation they’re in — though it could certainly be argued that it’s all consuming in “Dreams” — and the film takes a particularly nasty turn towards the end when a relationship of convenience is recognized for what it is by both parties who are left with only cruelty as recourse. Any suggestion that their behavior is far-fetched, however, should be countered with a look at recent headlines as nations dig in their heels around what happens around their gates and though the intimate two-hander would seem to transcend its scale as a tragedy on its own between the two people trying to protect their deepest desires, it takes on greater dimension when its broader implications set in for a larger public and becomes something impossible to walk away from.
“Dreams” will screen again at the Berlin Film Festival on February 16th at 11:30 am at the Uber Eats Music Hall, February 17th at 1 pm at the HKW 1 – Miriam Makeba Auditorium and February 19th at 9:30 pm at the Uber Eats Music Hall.