SCREEN | Ballet 'Dreams' – Jessica Chastain Crosses Borders

"I'll never abandon you."

Greenwich Entertainment / Vortex Media

Actress/producer Jessica Chastain and Mexican writer/director Michel Franco reteam for their harsh but erotic drama of romantic obsession, simply titled Dreams. Chastain, controlled as ever, plays a wealthy San Francisco philanthropist who becomes obsessed with a much younger Mexican ballet dancer played by accomplished newcomer Isaac Hernández, whom she convinces to come and stay in the U.S. illegally as a means of control.

Chastain plays the stone-cold power broker who gets what she wants in her most sexual and forceful role on screen yet. How she manipulates the relationship imbalance between her and Hernández's vulnerable but strong-willed dancer is fairly ruthless despite their magnetic mutual attraction. Rupert Friend and Marshall Bell as her co-worker brother and father are pitch-perfect snooty in their portrayal of progressive activists who relish being on the "right" side of political issues more than actually helping those less fortunate, especially when it negatively impacts them, as highly visible patrons of the arts.

Dreams is a bluntly balletic yet highly erotic film about cross-cultural borders, invisible people, and how the rich control art. Franco's steamy class critique of power dynamics is highlighted by the stark political realities of the U.S.-Mexican border and how the wealthy manipulate forces to endlessly exploit the other side, particularly in the increasingly Americanized metropolis of Mexico City. It's a chilling but effective portrait of romantic privilege.


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