Dreams of a Life
Dir: Carol Morley
2011
*****
Dreams of a Life is one of the most haunting films I've ever seen. In 2003, thirty-eight year old Joyce Vicent died alone in her flat and wasn't discovered for another 3 years. Although she was relatively popular, her friends, family and work colleagues didn't realise she was gone. The film raises interesting and disturbing home truths about relationship, community and social issues of today as peoples emotions, reactions and memories are all laid bare. The reconstruction of the clearing out of the flat, littered with memories is very effective amid recreations of Joyce Vincent singing as a child and wrapping Christmas gifts the night before she died. The interviews of Joyce Vincent's friends are quite telling of the sort of person she was, all of them speak about her in a positive light but it is her ex-boyfriend Martin who is the most compelling - a really nice guy full of frustration, guilt and sadness that makes for one of the saddest endings to film ever. Powerful and emotional but never dwelling on how she died but very much telling a story of who the person was and why she shouldn't have died, which is a much better way of being remembered and is a life lesson for all of us. A must see.