Nicola Cage (Pig) invests much of his actorly prowess in this darkly, wry venture from Norway’s Kristoffer Borgli.
Dream Scenario may have an aura of Charlie Kaufman about it if one considers Cage’s vary chameleonic turn (in a dual role) in 2002’s Adaptation opposite Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper.
Now, in Borgli’s first English film he embraces the unique titular milieu of tenured milquetoast small town university biology professor Paul Matthews with wife Janet (Julianna Nicholson) and two daughters.
The film connects with today’s cancel culture and social media utilizing marketing film Thoughts. Being able to enter the subconscious of strangers but not Janet, allows for a celebrity status to enter the fray.
But, this internal landscape will have its misfortunes for Paul when it coms to the more abusive and the intimate, the latter though a Thoughts employee, Dylan Gelua’s Molly.
For the most part the filmmaking mines the premise fairly well before losing momentum in the last act or so. Yet, Cage endows the empowered professor with a shaded understated, even lofty quality that ranks rather high on his credits that Kaufman would look upon rather favorably.