4/5 A fun but serious movie
  by Amanda Vanderpool (Omaha, NE)
I thoroughly enjoy The Science of Sleep. It is fun and funny for the most part, but there are serious elements that require more attention. The love story between Stephane and Stephanie is cute at times, heart-breaking at other times. I wouldn't idly watch this movie, you would miss a lot. Also, it is half in French, half in English so unless you understand French you would have to be reading the subtitles.
It gets better each time you watch it, and I think you do need to watch it more than once to get the most out of it.
It is from the same director as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the two films are similar in that they require attention and multiple viewings. However, it is worth it in the end, because it is a beautiful film and story.

4/5 A creative comedy for the mind and senses
  by Larry VanDeSande (Mason, Michigan United States)
The trilingual French comedy "The Science of Sleep" is the life of an overly imaginative young Mexican-Frenchman (Stéphane played by Gael García Bernal) that develops a crush on his neighbor (Stéphanie played by Charlotte Gainsbourg.) What makes the film interesting and memorable is Stephane being an artistic fellow with a runaway imagination who dreams of hosting a television talk show and creating artistic rendering including water that is in fact cellophane and a future machine. His flirtations with Stephanie, the renter that lives across the hall in the building owned by his mother, are all built around these daydreams of artistry.

This is a film of brilliant endeavor and the ultimate creativity. Stephane's life, as told through the film, is a merger of fantasy and reality with the two often so mixed you can't tell the difference. It also has a wonderful script most 20-somethings will readily identify with in terms of youthful verve and spirit.

The movie was clearly influenced by other films, none more than Robert DeNiro's 1981 tour de force, "The King of Comedy," where the storylines of wanton fame, sexual desire, and glory and the intermingling of real life (real life in the movies, that is) and fantasy or dreamscape are regularly intertwined.

While "The King of Comedy" The King of Comedy was more tangible than "The Science of Sleep," the two are a mated pair developed a quarter-century apart on similar themes and values. Even though none of "King"'s black comedy came through in the French-English-Spanish speaking (with subtitiles for the trilingually impaired) gentleness and joyfulness of "The Science of Sleep," the two share laugh out loud moments and an endearing comic spirit throughout. In one memorable scene, Stephane awakes from one of his dreams -- that you don't know isn't reality until he awakes -- to find his feet in the freezer covered with frost.

"The Science of Sleep" won't go down on anyone's list of 25 greatest films yet it is a memorable comedy infected with moments of pathos and sensitivity that will have you cheering for the lead characters. I'd never seen Gael García Bernal before and he is very effective in the lead role. Charlotte Gainsbourg has a larger filmography; many have seen her in 2003's "21 Grams" and she was the victim of the 1999 thriller, "The Intruder." She does well here and has excellent chemistry with her male counterpart.

Any fan of foreign film or comedy or even love stories should give this movie a whirl. It's unlikely you've ever seen anything like it no matter how many movies you watch. It is a delight and maintains interest throughout, even with something of a cop-out ending. It's not easy to end a movie as episodically artistic as this one -- with a limited plotline built around a couple characters whose interactions revolve around art in fantasy -- and they didn't quite overcome that hurdle, sending the pair riding off on a salt and pepper stallion at the end. Perhaps it was the fitting conclusion to 95 minutes of sheer joy, after all.

2/5 Sorry, hated it
  by Jeremy Gloff (Tampa, Fl United States)
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1O5AUJ89LGKJV

3/5 Pretty, well-acted but rather baffling
  by Alan A. Elsner (Washington DC)
I loved "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and looked forward to this movie too. I found it visually very interesting and well-acted but lacking in the narrative drive and emotional heft of that masterpiece. The movie is clever, maybe too clever -- as if the director was seduced by his own cleverness.

We meet Stephane played by the appealing Gael Garcia Bernal, moving back to his mother's apartment in Paris from Mexico after the death of his father. The apartment next door is occupied by the fetching Stephanie, played by the fetching Charlotte Gainsbourg. Though his native tongue is Spanish and hers French, they communicate in English -- adding a sweet displacement to their discourse.

Stephane has what can only be described as an active dreamlife -- in fact he's the host of his own dreamworld TV late night chat show. The dream sequences are visually inventive and sometimes amusing -- but they intrude more and more until Stephane -- and we as viewers -- have increasing difficulty distinguishing dreams from reality.

Stephane would like to have a relationship with Stephanie but seems to use dreams as a way of avoiding growing up. When not dreaming, he's often burrowing into his childish bed in womb position. As the film becomes more and more incoherent, the issue seems to be whether Stephane will take permanent refuge in unreality or whether Stephanie can force him back into reality.

The problem is that we don't care enough one way or the other. Unlike "Eternal Sunshine..." in which characters with real souls struggled with a tragic dilemma, here I had the feeling of a director playing with his characters, constructing pretty scenarios for them to pose in, neglecting their true humanity.

It's not a bad movie and as I said visually it's very inventive. But it misses the heights of the director's previous effort because of his cavalier attitude toward his own characters.

2/5 Psychodelic extravaganza
  by Reader (Boca Raton, FL)
I must admit that the main reason I picked this movie to see is because it stars Charlotte Gainsbourg who is accomplished musician and a daughter of a very famous couple: actress Jane Birkin and French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. I was hoping to indulge in some fantastic music scores and on that note I got very disappointed becuase music was so minimal, it was next to nothing.

This is one of those experimental movies that require a lot of patience and endurance on the behalf of its audiences. It is a trippy story with dreamlike qualities where one never knows what is reality and what is imagination. I found film ending to be cute, a pretty girl riding on a horse holding onto her beloved. In that respect, this is a fairy tale - but it is an aquired taste.

Also it is unfair that such a beautiful artist like Charlotte is treated so carelessly in this film. Her hair looks like it has never seen a comb and her attire is almost the same with exception of a couple of scenes. I am hoping to see her on a big screen again because she can act and she deserves a role that can relinquish her full potential, no matter if her acting is done in French or English language. It appears she can do both equally well.