Jake Paltrow's directorial debut, "The Good Night," is a film about reality versus fantasy, specifically relationships versus infatuations. At times, it poignantly relates Gary's (Martin Freeman) unfulfilling life and eventually unfulfilling dreamscape to certain universal truths that are worth thinking about.
Gary, a former pop-star turned commercial jingle-maker, finds his job to be unfulfilling, and somewhat demeaning. His relationship with live-in girlfriend Dora (Gwyneth Paltrow) also provides him with similar feelings. Gary's defeated disposition is only amplified by Paul (Simon Pegg), former band-mate, friend, and current boss, who rides a wave of nonstop success. He finds that his dreams of a mysterious, and elegantly dressed woman named Anna (Penelope Cruz) enthrall him in a way his waking life doesn't. And so, he ultimately does whatever it takes to dream about Anna. This is where sage/mentor Mel (Danny Devito) comes in. He teaches Gary the ways of severe, life-damaging escapism while managing to be somewhat likeable and interesting.
Much like dreams - though not the lucid dreams featured in this film - the overall structure and flow of the picture is murky. Paltrow's character is pretty one-dimensional; she merely nags Gary at every possible opportunity. Her treatment of him could also be loosely categorized as abusive. It makes one wonder why Gary would bother to save such a relationship that has apparently been in a rut for three straight years. Her incredibly undesirable presence makes his willingness to dream utterly understandable, but doesn't make much sense when the arc comes into play.
Anna's brief real-life presence is awkward nor is it used wisely; furthermore, her role in Gary's dream-life seems highly unrealistic given the circumstances of their pre-dream relationship, and post-dream revelation. One would guess that this "twist" is a directorial stint at making a larger-than-life impact on the audience, but it's a twist that is unnecessary nor terribly moving. If director Paltrow had stuck with something that made more sense then maybe the movie would actually be good. Its strongest point is the four or five moments that are genuinely funny. Interestingly enough, director Paltrow makes a "Royal Tenenbaums" reference to actor Paltrow's "Margo" character by having her involved in another "in the bathroom and depressed" situation.
The trailer of "The Good Night" has more structure than the actual film itself. Unfortunately, the trailer is not only misleading, but also god-awful. The film starts out with a series of psuedo-documentary "talking heads" interviews that are both terribly uninformative, and confusing. I guess it's worth watching on DVD if you can't leave your house due to horrible weather conditions or a crippling health issue, but other than that, not so much...
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