IN DREAMS

A serial killer infiltrates the mind of a woman (Annette Bening as Claire Cooper), appearing in her dreams to give clues in the form of premonitions as to his next moves. Of course Claire's husband, Paul (Aidan Quinn), doesn't believe her until it's too late and even then, he is forced to have her committed because she is nearly driven insane by the images she receives.

It's an interesting thriller and Bening is a very competent actress. But what drives me nearly insane with these types of films is that no one ever believes the characters. The quickie answer to that is: "There wouldn't be much of a movie if they believed her or him". Still, I sit screaming at the screen, "Believe her already, you idiot, she's already proven she was correct before."

The film begins with an eerie underwater sequence of an entire village that was flooded to make way for a reservoir. It stands underwater much as it did on the surface . Water images become very important to Claire as they repeat themselves throughout her dreams and foretell several tragedies.

Aidan Quinn's roles seem to be getting smaller and smaller and that's unfortunate because he's a fine actor. Robert Downey, Jr. appears at the end as the totally deranged killer. It's a scary part. And British actor Stephen Rea appears here as a New England psychiatrist of the type that you want to give him a lobotomy for being so incessantly stupid.

Overall, the film was okay, but sometimes the actions of the characters really grate on the brain. Lotta says if you like the genre go for it; it's worth at least the price of the video.