In Dreams is a 1999

1999 in film

The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep...

 psychological thriller

Psychological thriller

Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 directed by Neil Jordan

Neil Jordan

Neil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...

. It stars Annette Bening

Annette Bening

Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...

 as a New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 illustrator

Illustrator

An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

 who begins experiencing visions of a missing child who turns out to be her own daughter; through her dreams, she begins having psychic connections to a serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

 (Robert Downey, Jr.) responsible for the murder of her daughter and several other local children.

In Dreams has the distinction of being the last film Downey completed before being sent to Corcoran State Prison on drug charges.

Plot

Claire Cooper (Bening) is a suburban housewife and mother who illustrates children's stories and is married to an airline pilot (Aidan Quinn

Aidan Quinn

-Early life:Quinn was born in Chicago, Illinois to Irish parents. He was brought up as a Roman Catholic and raised in Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly in Ireland. His mother, Teresa, was a homemaker, and his father, Michael Quinn, was a professor of...

). Her perfect world unravels when her daughter is kidnapped and brutally murdered.

Claire is haunted by her daughter's murderer, a serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

 named Vivian Thompson (Downey). She has several visions of murders he commits next. When doctors diagnose her as psychotic

Psychosis

Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...

, Claire is committed to a mental institution. She receives a vision of Vivian kidnapping another child, so she escapes to track him down and stop him from killing again.

Cast

Actor	Role
Annette Bening Annette Bening Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...	Claire Cooper
Katie Sagona Katie Sagona Katie Sagona is an American actress. She acted in a series of films and TV shows throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including You've Got Mail, In Dreams, Grumpier Old Men, Black and White, and she also played Johnny Depp's daughter in Donnie Brasco...	Rebecca Cooper
Aidan Quinn Aidan Quinn -Early life:Quinn was born in Chicago, Illinois to Irish parents. He was brought up as a Roman Catholic and raised in Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly in Ireland. His mother, Teresa, was a homemaker, and his father, Michael Quinn, was a professor of...	Paul Cooper
Robert Downey, Jr.	Vivian Thompson
Paul Guilfoyle Paul Guilfoyle Paul Guilfoyle is an American television and film actor. He is currently a regular cast member of the forensic television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation where he plays Captain Jim Brass.-Early life:...	Detective Jack Kay
Kathleen Langlois	Snow White
Jennifer Berry Jennifer Berry Jennifer Berry-Gooden was crowned Miss America on January 21, 2006. A resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma, she was the fifth Miss America from Oklahoma to hold the title....	Hunter
Amelia Claire Novotny	Prince
Kristin Sroke	Hunter
Robert Walsh	Man at School Play
Denise Cormier	Woman at School Play
John Fiore John Fiore John Fiore may refer to:*John Fiore , American actor*John Fiore , American politician who succeeded Jim Stork...	Policeman
Ken Cheeseman Ken Cheeseman Ken Cheeseman is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best known for his appearances on the Law & Order franchise television series...	Paramedic
Dennis Boutsikaris	Doctor Stevens
Stephen Rea Stephen Rea Stephen Rea is an Irish film and stage actor. Rea has appeared in high profile films such as V for Vendetta, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire and Breakfast on Pluto...	Doctor Silverman
Margo Martindale Margo Martindale Margo Martindale is an American stage, television and film actress. In 2011, Martindale won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Mags Bennett on Justified.-Early life:...	Nurse Floyd
June Lewin	Kindly Nurse
Pamela Payton-Wright Pamela Payton-Wright -Biography:Payton-Wright was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Eleanor Ruth and Gordon Edgar Payton-Wright. She graduated from the Birmingham-Southern College in 1963. She began her television career in 1972 as Rhonda on Corky...	Ethel
Krystal Benn	Ruby
Dorothy Dwyer	Foster Mother

Reception

Christopher Null from filmcritic.com gave the film two stars out of five, stating, "The story never comes together, despite an intriguing performance from Bening as a complete nut job." Adam Goldberg from All Movie Guide gave it three stars out of five, commenting that the film "is a mildly suspenseful but disjointed thriller....Ultimately, In Dreams is The Exorcist

The Exorcist

The Exorcist is a novel of supernatural suspense by William Peter Blatty, published by Harper & Row in 1971. It was inspired by a 1949 case of demonic possession and exorcism that Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school...

meets A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...

, but it simply lacks a new and terrifying take on the dream/reality premise."

Soundtrack

The score was composed by Elliot Goldenthal

Elliot Goldenthal

Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways...

.

Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

's "In Dreams

In Dreams (song)

Recorded in Monument's Nashville studios in early 1963, "In Dreams" peaked at number 7 on Billboards Hot 100 and spent 13 weeks on the charts in the U.S. During the five months the song was on the charts, Orbison replaced guitarist Duane Eddy on a tour of England. He was immensely popular in...

" plays during the credits.