The debut from writer/director Racheal Cain feels heavily inspired by David Lynch and Charlie Kaufman, and it’s hard not to think about The Substance when watching Somnium. However, the film misses the mark, mainly caused by a messy third act that attempts to tie up the movie in a bit too clean a bow.
Chloe Levine plays Gemma, a young aspiring actress who has just arrived in Hollywood in hopes of making it big. She seems aware of the grind it’ll take to find success, and has nearly fully committed to a make-or-break scenario. She has a small envelope of money with enough to repurchase a ticket home if necessary, which she has hidden away in case it all doesn’t work out. Of course, between looking for and doing auditions, she’ll need a way to make money, which leads her to the ‘Somnium’ clinic.
After walking in and doing a cold resume drop, she’s quickly offered the chance for a trial shift to see if the job would work out with her. She meets the lead doctor (Gillian White) and the two others who work there, Olivia (Clarissa Thibeaux) behind the counter, and Noah (Will Peltz), who explains he does some dream creating. Gemma’s job would simply be guarding the centre while clients are asleep there at night, and watching for any weird things. At the same time, the patients lie in beds having hypnotic messages played for them in hopes of rewriting their brainwaves and making their dreams a reality.
Somnium is all about the big aspirational dreams we have, and how different people go about achieving and chasing them, or in some cases, simply not. In flashbacks, we see Gemma and boyfriend Hunter (Peter Vack) getting close, but then being pushed apart by their different asperational hopes. Gemma wants to move out of the small town and chase an acting career; Tyler wants to play in a band, but is happy to accept that he can enjoy some garage stuff with friends, and settle down doing the same thing his parents have been doing.
What drives people to chase their big dreams is also presented interestingly in Somnium, as Gemma’s dreams are built on the rather romantic idea of acting and Hollywood rather than the riches that could come, but those lying in the beds at the Somnium clinic all seem to be chasing stardom and political careers for the power and the riches that follow. There’s also disdain for all of them from Noah, who creates the dreams for them, as if the people who can shape our dreams in life are often disgusting.
Gemma also meets Brooks (Johnathon Schaech), who approaches her in the middle of the night outside the clinic in a rather creepy manner, but then seems genuinely interested in helping her advance her career. This is an odd dream-like character I wasn’t sure is even real or not for a lot of the film because of how oddly he’s presented. A representation of the good within Hollywood or something more?
As Somnium reaches its third act, some revelations are withheld, and Gemma undergoes a narrative beat that can be summarised as “chasing your dreams requires facing your demons, and what scares you head-on with no safety net.” And although I understand the sentiment, I didn’t think the way the message is told, how the narrative unfolds, was particularly engaging, or even in tone, compared to the rest of the film. It left the ending with me feeling a bit bland.
Chloe Levine is quite good in this film, and she takes any material that relies on the actor delivering it with utmost care and sincerity and makes it work. I couldn’t say the same for the rest of the cast, unfortunately, Will Peltz in particular. I found him to be playing the weird guy, too much like an odd guy, and even Peter Vack seemed uninterested in Gemma when he was supposed to be playing up these romantic scenes. When the movie is Levine alone, however, it can be pretty good.
(Screener provided to Explosion Network.
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