The Dreamers (2003)

Beautiful Paris. Beautiful Eva Green. Beautiful Michael Pitt. Beautiful naked Eva Green and Michael Pitt. Sound promising? Unfortunately, the “reality” of The “Dreamers” is a letdown.Against the backdrop of 1968 Parisian revolution, American student Matthew (Michael Pitt) meets French twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel). The 3 share a passion for film and intellectual discussion and soon Matthew is staying with the twins in their parents’ apartment. Insulated from the “reality” of the streets the twins “dream” away the days drinking wine, discussing film and playing mind games with each other and with Matthew.The film in inter-cut with scenes from classic films such as Freaks and Breathless just to name a few. These scenes were fun and worked well. The best scene in the film is when the main characters recreate a dash through the Louvre from A Band Apart.Interesting but perplexing is the sexual politics at play between the three. The intimate relationship between the twins is supposed to be shocking but is merely curious. An attraction between the boys goes nowhere and when Matthew and Isabelle get down and dirty on the kitchen floor it isn’t really sexy at all.This is very obviously a European film and I mean that in the worst possible way. The characters are lifeless, naive and arrogant. Only Matthew seems to recognize the pretension. He is meant to be the voice of reason and even though he seems a bit dense he comes off all wise and worldly in comparison to the twins.The last half hour or so of the film is the weakest part and doesn’t seem to fit with the tone of what went on before.I tried to like The Dreamers. I almost feel guilty for not liking it more. If it didn’t try so hard to be saying something about youth, sex and revolution then it wouldn’t have failed so miserably.