Near as I can guess, Neil Jordan was attempting to marry the serial killer thriller with the fairy tale. It may well be impossible to do such a thing, but one thing's for sure; IN DREAMS is a failure at it, albeit a fascinating one. Jordan's gift for imagery remains intact, but there seems to be no guiding hand on the tiller, so it all becomes overwhelming and incomprehensible after awhile. The original novel had a concept which it stuck to so the story felt grounded. Someone compared this film to DEAD AGAIN, but that film had a touch of self-parody to it to keep you from taking it too seriously, without descending into camp. This never gets campy, to its credit, but it goes crazy. It's useless to talk about the performances, because they're all competing with the craziness, except Paul Guilfoyle, who contributes another solid performance and is underused here, and Stephen Rea(what's with that accent he uses), who looks like he'd rather be somewhere else.
