Dream House (2011) – The Sixth Sense and Shutter Island’s love child

Daniel Craig and Rachel Wiese star in a physiological thriller that starts brightly but disappoints by the time the final credits being to roll.

Dream House had plenty of potential with its story, despite the fact that it’s completely derivative of two other movies. Revealing those films would spoil the surprise, as they are both popular and well-received by audiences and critics alike. A hint to
those two films can be found in the title of the article.

Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) has finally decided to quit his job as an editor at GPH Publishers to spend more time with his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and kids (Taylor and Claire Geare) and to start writing a book. He moves to a large house in rural Fairfield
County, which holds a dark history. In his new home, undisclosed by his realtor, a father brutally murdered his wife and kids.

Much of the predictability comes from the trailer, which inexplicably spoils the key twist in the film. Because of the trailer, I actually expected an additional twist to contradict the give-away. Instead, it plays out pretty much as expected, saved only
by the efforts of Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz (now married in real life). Word is that the producer of the film, wrestled control away from director Jim Sheridan (In America, My Left Foot) and edited the film into it’s mostly banal finished state. Such a
shame.

The frustration with this one lies in untapped potential. So much more could have been done with Koteas, Watts and Marton Csokas who plays Watts’ intense ex-husband. For two days after watching this movie, I kept coming up with new twists and turns that
could have made the movie more suspenseful and entertaining. It’s clear that Craig and Weisz are unhappy with the final product as they have been noticeably absent on the talk show circuit.

All in all the movie had plenty of potential yet the lack of imagination and inventiveness means that Dream House is a film that few will watch and even fewer will enjoy.

One would be better off watching The Sixth Sense or Shutter Island. 

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Posted by Musa Afridi on Mar 24 2012. Filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry