Jessica Chastain plays one of her most daring roles in “Dreams,” a brutally erotic thriller about power, passion, art and immigration. Reuniting with filmmaker Michelle Franco, she plays a San Francisco socialite who becomes embroiled in a whirlwind love affair with Isaac Hernandez, a talented Mexican ballet dancer. Her character Jennifer, the affluent daughter of a powerful man, is like Shiv Roy before turning to the dark side; Or, rather, realized that she was always there.
“Dreams,” which opens in limited release on Friday, creatively explores ideas about America’s relationship with Mexican immigrants through the constantly changing power dynamics between Fernando and Jennifer. It’s both captivating and bleak, with a series of sexual encounters that can only be described as wild – “Wuthering Heights” wishes it could have touched Fernando and Jennifer’s brutal peaks together.
Franco opens his film not on these two, but on a semitruck in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. We can only hear cold screams and loud noises from inside. When the doors are later opened, migrants exit the truck, including a man we learn is Fernando, who simply drives off. He keeps going, and going, and going: all night, all day long, like a machine in an unconscious state until he is forced to stop for water.
We finally find out where he’s headed when we first hear him asking drivers at a gas station, in perfect English, if he can get a ride to San Francisco. When he arrives, he goes straight to a fancy townhouse; After the doorbell rings and goes unanswered, he finds the spare keys, goes inside, and takes out breakfast from the fridge with the complete casualness of someone who has not only been there before, but who is also comfortable there. We understand this isn’t sabotage – but what is it? Later that night Jennifer arrives and is not at all surprised to find him in her bed.
The film keeps the exposition sparse, challenging the audience to follow along as it progresses. The two have a history that seems to begin in Mexico where Jennifer oversees a dance foundation. Her brother makes fun of her interest in Mexico and her frequent visits, and scoffs that their money should go to Americans. She calls him an idiot, but also laughs as a Mexican woman cleans around them in a luxurious boardroom. The comparison between invisible workers and the rich occurs everywhere in “Dreams.”
In San Francisco, Fernando has Jennifer’s secret. In private, they are inseparable. In public, he may be hidden from anyone who knows his or her father. After watching this dance for a bit, Fernando decided he had enough and disappeared. Jennifer goes a little crazy trying to find him; Flying to visit his parents in Mexico City, hiring a private investigator. Then he reappears one day in front of the San Francisco Ballet. He is dancing for tickets to the show and after losing his right eye, he gets a job in the company. Suddenly he has not only a place in Jennifer’s rarefied world, but a starring role, entirely on talent alone and without her help.
For a brief moment, they find their way back to each other, and she attempts to make their relationship more public. But still, she fails to call him anything other than her lover; Then her family finds out what is happening and that fantasy is dashed. It wasn’t long before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement came to Fernando while he was in rehearsal as the head of the ballet company.
In his film debut, Hernandez is a charming presence as an actor and completely excellent as a dancer, which we get to see a lot of. The film lets the audience enjoy their elegant weightlessness while rehearsing the thematically appropriate “Swan Lake.”
The story becomes even more sinister when Jennifer and Fernando meet again in Mexico. She wants to keep it there for him to meet, as her plaything. He just wants to get back to America and the balance of power changes and shifts again toward the dizzying, terrifying ending.
Greenwich Entertainment’s release “Dreams,” in select theaters Friday, has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 98 minutes. Three out of four stars.
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