Jessica Chastain leads a sexually-charged drama about love and social class

Plot: A powerful socialite and a promising ballet dancer begin a dangerous affair. When he secretly crosses the US-Mexico border, she takes desperate measures to protect their future together.

Review: Back in 2023, Michel Franco’s Memory became a festival hit when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, garnering acclaim and a 10/10 review from our own Chris Bumbray. Franco’s career as a director has exponentially improved with each successive film, and the filmmaker has found a muse and creative partner in Jessica Chastain. The second project from Franco and Chastain is the very timely Dreams, which revolves around the relationship between a wealthy American woman and an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Evoking the erotic and sexual nature of provocative films of the seventies, Dreams is not a film about the contentious state of immigrants in America, but rather a portrait of power and class involving two people from very different worlds. It is a haunting and poignant film and another impressive effort from Michel Franco.

The film opens with Fernando Rodriguez (Isaac Hernandez) crossing the Mexican border with the United States alongside many others via a truck. When the authorities raid the coyote’s convoy, Fernando escapes, walks through the Southwest, and makes his way to an apartment owned by Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain). When Jennifer arrives home, she falls into bed with Fernando, and the two make love and continue to stay in each other’s arms for as long as possible. Jennifer wants to keep Fernando hidden and safe, but the young ballet dancer yearns to make his own way as a professional dancer and not live off his lover’s wealth. Jennifer, who works for a non-profit funded by her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), returns to work alongside her brother, Jake (Rupert Friend), while Fernando panhandles to raise money to attend a ballet performance. Both Jennifer and Fernando orbit each other, fall back together, then separate time and again.

Throughout Dreams, we see the privilege Jennifer enjoys through galas, art shows, and private planes, allowing her to move freely between her home and abroad, while Fernando must work menial jobs to survive because his lack of documentation prevents him from dancing with a ballet company. Isaac Hernandez, a trained ballet dancer, performs in the film, and his authenticity forces the audience to feel shame when we see him working as a busboy or performing other tasks that are far beneath him, but which he must do since he is not a citizen. Dreams never preaches about the state of immigration, nor does it incorporate a message about the controversial tactics employed by ICE, but the presence of current events in the back of the viewer’s mind adds to the tension of what we see on screen. Michel Franco also does not delve into anything sultry or illicit about the relationship between Jennifer and Fernando, but Jennifer’s desire to keep Fernando locked away and private makes their connection feel tawdry and wrong, even though they are both consenting adults with nothing preventing them from being together other than their nationalities.

For most of the film’s running time, Dreams shows Fernando and Jennifer apart and then coming back together, each time resulting in a voracious sexual experience, which Michel Franco lenses in a frank and realistic fashion. Both Jessica Chastain and Isaac Hernandez bare all in each sequence, which are shot with few cuts and kept in natural light. One sex scene takes place on a staircase and shifts organically between acts as the lovers strip each other and meld on screen. Hernandez and Chastain have believable chemistry in both their sex scenes and their dialogue-heavy moments. It is this chemistry that makes the final act so much harder to watch. I won’t spoil where Dreams goes, but it wasn’t where I expected it to go. There is a conversation I was anticipating for much of the film that, when it finally takes place, shifts the story’s direction and turns Dreams from something positive into a complete nightmare. It is a challenging tonal shift that may work for some viewers and not others.

Michel Franco wrote the role of Jennifer specifically for Jessica Chastain, and it shares similarities with her character from Memory. Both women struggle with the weight of emotional trauma and take it out on their romantic partner, but Chastain imbues Jennifer with a sense of entitlement that makes her a difficult character to sympathize with. From the start of the film through the end, my opinion of Jennifer and my sympathy for her shifted, and the shocking final act altered my perception of the movie’s message. Franco is a talented director at taking realistic situations and giving the characters inhabiting his stories realistic voices, but there are times when this movie takes on an almost ethereal feel that echoes the title. There is limited music outside of classical works played during the ballet sequences, and Franco allows the language barrier between Fernando and Jennifer to inform the plot. Cinematographer Yves Cape gives the movie an intimate, realistic feel that borders on documentary, while still evoking a sensuality that shapes the perception of the main characters.

Dreams is a difficult movie to watch, but not because of its prescient subject matter. While immigration and the divide between Mexico and the United States factor into the plot, Dreams is not a film about illegal immigration but instead the class divide between the haves and the have-nots and how that can impact romantic entanglements. Jessica Chastain is, as always, phenomenal in her role, and Isaac Hernandez is an impressive new talent who can act as well as he can perform ballet. Like Memory, Dreams is a challenging story to experience, but one that is worth the investment. The sex scenes alone are impressive in their rawness and emotional heft, while the movie manages to surprise along the way. I think the jarring shift in the final third of the film could have been handled a bit more subtly, but there is no doubt it will stick with you after you experience it.

Dreams opens in theaters on February 27th.

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