Steve Clark Plot The story centers on a young girl named Audrey that lives in a trailer park in the New Mexico desert. We soon learn that her best friend Calista, also from the trailer park, has succumbing to the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis and that her father can't leave the grounds of the trailer park because he's so emotionally crippled by the death of his wife, our protagonist's mother. Enter stage left ... Justin Long, now and forever known as the Apple guy, stumbles upon their trailer park on his way to a basketball tryout at UNLV. Central Conflict Audrey is a girl destined for greatness who hides her fear of failure in the stoic duties of taking care of her emotionally crippled father and her friend Calista who's diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. As Justin Long's Character, Mookie, starts to gravitate towards Calista, we see Audrey start to project her dreams and desires of leaving the trailer park behind onto him. The friendship between Audrey and Calista unravels as the two girls fight for his affection. And in the end, you really don't care who ends up with him. This movie drowns in what I'll refer to as the "victim mentality." The lead character blames her dead mother, her father, her friends and her trailer park for not being able to move on with her life. And instead of doing what she already knows is the best thing for her to do, she allows herself to be paralyzed by her self pity. It takes Justin Long to come along and give her something she had all along ... self respect. This movie is just too contrived, clichéd, unoriginal and has been done before in better movies such as Bodies, Rest & Motion and Gas, Food Lodging. Also, it's as if the script was written by Debbie Downer ... "I want to be Miss America but I have MS" ... queue the Wah-Wah trumpets. Characters Justin Long cast as an undiscovered basketball prodigy living in the desert? Really? Soccer maybe but not basketball. Kelli Garner cast as the second fiddle in a trailer park that only contains two girls? Really? Was the casting director blind? Gina Gershon's part consists of us watching her unpack Justin Long's crap? Really? Central Casting! I need a super hot actress in her late thirties to early forties that can unpack the back of a truck? Horrible casting but I blame the script more than the cast for this epic failure.http://scottishtexan.blogspot.com

peolly Pretentious plot. Okay acting. Shallow characters The verdict? So-so.What first turned me off was Calista, or Cindy, or whatever her name is, the character had about the same IQ as your average eggplant. She changed her name to Calista because it sounded "hot" like a porn star name? It just shows why the rest of the world hate America, ha. And as the story progresses, some cute basketball player moves into the trailer park that both Audrey and "Calista" were drooling over, but you know, since Calista was dying and everything, Audrey as her best friend backed off of the guy (not spoiling anything, it's made fairly obvious what's going on from the beginning). And the two start dating and whatever while Audrey watches from the side and she realizes that she's in love with him or something. Ha, ha, little girls, we'll talk when you can tell the difference between love and infatuation. It's just stupid teenage melodramatic bull, aren't you supposed to go through that stuff when you're like 14? Okay enough ranting, now for the good parts of the film, the cinematography, absolutely gorgeous, I cannot even imagine how many hours and days someone would have to film at that same spot to get those stunning shots of the sky. Conclusion? The plot and the characters aren't so great but it is quite something to look at.

bwdude Last night I was in the mood for a movie - any movie - and so I popped "Dreamland" out of the unseen stack of my DVD collection.I did not expect all too much, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that it was actually very good.The first thing I noticed was the beautiful photography. There are some really breathtaking shots, at least if you watch it on a big enough screen.Secondly the story, while slow paced, is kinda nice and comes in several layers. Sort of a "feelgood-movie", even if all of the characters have their problems throughout the movie.The acting was pretty good, but especially John Corbett blew me away. No more nice guy like in Sex and the City or the Greek Wedding. Instead he sometimes reminded me of Jeff Bridges in "The Big Lebowski". Which in fact is a big compliment, coming from a guy who watched Lebowski for Idontknow how many times.Definitely a well-earned eight on my scale!

bla75 Dreamland is a film about hopes and dreams, fear and regret. Audrey and her father Henry live in a trailer park after Henry's wife has passed away. Henry is a drunk and deathly afraid of physically leaving the trailer park, where he has lived for the past several years. Calista, Audrey's best friend, is a beautiful, aspiring Miss America who has MS, counting the days until she dies. Dreamland explores a common theme of breaking personal boundaries (real or perceived) and having to face your own truth. It works because the context is exquisitely executed. The imagery is extremely well done, and Kelli Garner's performance, a hint of Marilyn Monroe, is the most difficult and deserves recognition. John Corbett's character does push his limits but he does a fine job. Gina Gershon has a bit part but does it well. The main flaw is the ending, and I wish they would have taken a more risqué approach rather than wrapping everything up in a nice bow.