The Dream Team: Nolan’s “Inception” getting high praise

From the art house to the megaplex, we’ve seen countless attempts at recreating dreams for the big screen. Dream depictions date back to the beginning of film, and the success stories are limited. Most of the time dreams in film are hackneyed plot devices or lazy attempts at character development.

The few exceptions are artsy surrealist films. Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali best portrayed the shocking incoherence of nightmares in the 1929 silent short “Un Chien Andalou.” David Lynch is the modern master of the tradition. His films like Mulholland Drive and Eraserhead paint dark, unsettling dreamscapes where the rules of the waking world don’t apply.

Reviews show “Inception”, opening at midnight Friday, appears to sets a new benchmark for movies about dreams. Accessible to audiences but impossible to describe on paper, it’s not your typical summer blockbuster.

Roger Ebert said it best when he wrote in his review “Here is a movie immune to spoilers: If you knew how it ended, that would tell you nothing unless you knew how it got there. And telling you how it got there would produce bafflement.”

Here’s what we know from the previews and press releases:

Leonardo DiCaprio leads a team of specialists who infiltrate people’s dreams to steal their secrets. He’s offered one last job as a chance at redemption. Instead of stealing an idea he has to plant one. Something of course goes wrong as the trailers and commercials are filled with images of the world bending and cities collapsing.



"Inception's" pedigree is unmatched on paper. Director Christopher Nolan is the man who reinvented Batman and set records with “The Dark Knight.” Oscar winners and rising stars fill out the large ensemble cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Michael Caine are just a few to name aside from DiCaprio.

The Rotten Tomato ranking, which averages all positive and negative reviews, is at a very respectable 87 percent. Mr. Ebert himself gave “Inception” four stars.

Look for a full review on the Sleep Education Blog in the coming days.

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Movie “In My Sleep” is a Sleepwalking Thriller

Coke’s recent “Sleepwalker” ad had a whimsical, humorous tone. In contrast, the new movie “In My Sleep” examines the darker side of sleepwalking.

The movie’s tagline is, “Sleepwalking can be deadly.” And the film is rated PG-13 for sexual content, violence and bloody images.



The plot was inspired by real sleepwalking stories, first-time director Allen Wolf said in a press kit. He also wrote and produced the movie.

“I had read many stories about people who had done all kinds of horrifying things while they were sleepwalking,” Wolf said. “The idea that someone could do virtually anything while sleepwalking and have no conscious memory of it was fascinating to me.

“I thought that most of us could relate to feeling like a part of our lives is out of control. I wanted to take that to the next level – what if you lost control of yourself when you were sleeping? That idea drew me to the story.”

In terms of its medical accuracy, the movie appears to be a little loose with the details. The main character is diagnosed with “parasomnia, a rare sleep disorder.”

“Parasomnia” is actually a classification of a dozen specific sleep disorders. Some of them are rare, but others are quite common. All of them involve undesired behaviors during sleep.

Nightmare disorder. Sleepwalking. Sleep terrors. Confusional arousals. Sleep paralysis. Hallucinations. Sleep-related eating disorder. These are some examples of parasomnias.

But in general, the movie is right: Sleepwalking can be a dangerous problem. Some people with REM sleep behavior disorder take sleepwalking to the extreme. They act out vivid, action-packed dreams while remaining asleep. They may shout, punch, kick, run and even jump out a window.

Other people may sleepwalk as a side effect of taking a sleeping pill. In 2007 the FDA requested that a warning about the risk of “complex sleep-related behaviors” be added to the product labeling of all sedative hypnotics.

You can get help for a parasomnia at an AASM-accredited sleep center near you. The AASM offers these Guidelines for Taking Sleep Medications.

Read more about parasomnias. The 2005 documentary “Sleep Runners” tells the true stories of people who suffer from parasomnias.

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