The premise of a man who shows up in the dreams of others for no apparent reason, and the way in which his life falls apart as a result, deserves a better telling than this.
Nic Cage does a great job portraying an utterly unlikeable shmuck, but the movie could have told a deeper story if his character had some redeeming qualities. As it is, each scene he's in is wincingly awkward to watch, and he's in nearly every scene. It almost seems unfair to the character. For example, many shots of Cage are filmed from behind or the side in order to emphasize his baldness. Congrats to the Nic and the filmmakers for pointing that out so effectively, but it becomes way too much over the course of an entire movie. They've substituted mockery and cringe for what could have been an interesting plot.
As others have pointed out, the movie takes a dumb turn at the end, instead of staying committed to the course it has laid out. An honest ending would have been a better and darker, but the movie was already unsavable at that point anyway.
Nic Cage does a great job portraying an utterly unlikeable shmuck, but the movie could have told a deeper story if his character had some redeeming qualities. As it is, each scene he's in is wincingly awkward to watch, and he's in nearly every scene. It almost seems unfair to the character. For example, many shots of Cage are filmed from behind or the side in order to emphasize his baldness. Congrats to the Nic and the filmmakers for pointing that out so effectively, but it becomes way too much over the course of an entire movie. They've substituted mockery and cringe for what could have been an interesting plot.
As others have pointed out, the movie takes a dumb turn at the end, instead of staying committed to the course it has laid out. An honest ending would have been a better and darker, but the movie was already unsavable at that point anyway.