Life Could Be a Dream review: ‘genuinely gut-wrenching’ Australian drama

This review discusses domestic violence and coercive control.

Real estate agent Sarah (Maeve Dermody) shimmers in her designer wedding gown, dancing arm-in-arm with her handsome new husband Jake (Alexander England). Their nuptials look like a dream, but Australian director Jasmin Tarasin’s impactful, Sydney-set debut feature, Life Could Be a Dream, offers no happily ever after.

A woozy half-light flickers as cinematographer Meg White’s camera moves in tight, and this picture (so-called) perfect image begins to ripple, with Stuart Morton’s sound design muffling the scene as if we’re viewing it from underwater.

And we are. Jake roughly pulls Sarah close, hissing in her ear that she should have practised her dance steps last night, then a refraction, real or imagined, captures the new bride plunging, fully clothed, into a deep, blue swimming pool.

An echo of Shakespeare’s drowning Ophelia, the heady symbolism conjures the idea of a woman on the edge, slowly drifting away, as also invoked in Lars von Trier’s more cosmic-level disaster movie, Melancholia, which also featured a doomed union.

Close call

Jumping forward to Sarah’s impending 40^th birthday, she’s enjoying a brief moment’s peace in this smothering marriage. Jake’s away on business and her doting son Otis (Sonny McGee) is serving up pancakes. But as is often the case in these distressing situations, the relief is fleeting.

Word comes that Jake’s flying home early, sending a shivering flinch across Sarah’s face, her shoulders tightening as they talk on the phone, which seems to frighten her; a glimpse of the screen reveals the many missed calls she’s tried to avoid.

Jake’s hidden a chunky bracelet in a bathroom basket, but we get the sense that it is a shackle for her wrists. Especially when he insists Sarah show him – and we realise he has cameras set up around the house to observe her at all hours.

Anyone who has endured the insidious form of psychological violence called coercive control will recognise all too well the telltale signs that Sarah is ensnared in a debilitating trap.

When she suggests they have a picnic by the beach, it is genuinely heartbreaking to witness her reaction when the otherwise sweet-natured Otis, disbelieving a chip shop attendant’s warning about the brazenness of the local seagulls, suggests that all women exaggerate, as per his dad’s unwise counsel. For Sarah, it sparks a paralysing fear that perhaps her only ally, her flesh and blood, has been corrupted.

Storm clouds

Deftly written by Courtney Collins, Life Could Be a Dream is ably carried by a small but perfectly formed cast, as assembled by casting director Anousha Zarkesh.

Dermody, who has popped up in Strife, astonishes here, delivering a genuinely gut-wrenching performance in which much of Sarah’s pain is knotted up tight inside. There are understandable but nevertheless queasy-making flip-flops, as she tries to hide herself and Otis away in an austere harbourside mansion she’s been tasked with selling, but can’t quite keep from occasionally messaging a furious Jake on a brand new burner phone.

Black Snow actor England is a sure hand used sparingly, appearing like a jump scare in both unnerving nightmares and too-real calls, crowding the film’s dread-filled atmosphere like a menacing cloud in his brief appearances.

Jake’s at his most disturbing when his face value words aren’t awful at all, like the subtly commanding way he takes Sarah’s phone during an early ‘meet-cute’ and ingratiates himself with her unseen, but often niggling, mother.

We grasp that Sarah’s not super-tight with her mum, who sees nothing but Jake’s snake oil charms, and we know she’s fallen out with a best friend who won’t return her calls, leaving her leaning heavily on Otis’ slowly broadening shoulders.

A mother’s love

Of course, a young man that age can only stay under her too-smothering grip so long, especially when he strikes up a flirtation with the daughter of a local grocery store owner, Sati (Noam Sen-Gupta, also good in her first gig).

I’ve said before I’m not overly fond of tarring all creative families with the nepobaby slur. There’s nothing inherently wrong with giving your kid a hand-up, but they must earn their keep. And goodness knows McGee, Tarasin’s real-life son, does. Impressing in his debut role, he captures the perfect teenage testosterone tightrope walk between reassuringly gentle empathy and cocky arrogance, particularly arcing up when his mum perfectly innocently jokes around with the gardener, played by Julius Caesar star Septimus Caton.

Otis is a good lad, but he’s picked up a few ticks from having a bad dad and isn’t sure about casting him off, even while smart enough to know the situation’s not great (especially after Jake closes both their bank accounts).

McGee and Dermody do brilliant work establishing the nuance of their relationship, and the film is at its strongest when anchored by their push-and-pull.

Watch the trailer

Real life or fantasy?

While it is abundantly true that this kind of abuse can happen to anyone, anywhere and in any situation, Tarasin perhaps falls back too heavily on her commercial work in fashion and on music videos to paint a privileged position, defusing some of the film’s danger in so doing.

Yes, Life Could Be a Dream is beautiful, thanks to White’s keen eye. But shooting in the late Carla Zampatti’s palatial home, then asking us to believe that not only would Sarah not be busted for doing so, but that the joint is still sparsely populated with luxurious furniture and an extensive wine collection, stretches credulity in the film’s back half. As does mother and son continuing to frequent a bougie deli when they have $100 to their name, and Sarah’s constant procession of labels, chosen by costume designer Erin Fairs.

Is this a Vogue photo shoot, or a Shayda-like slice of social realism illuminating a very real scourge? The more fantastical elements would have been better left in dreams, with Sarah’s reading of Pride and Prejudice also feeling a little on the nose. The ending’s a touch rushed, too, though its open-endedness feels both truthful and offers some much-needed hope.

Those minor grumbles aside, Tarasin’s promising debut feature may not be an easy watch, but it feels like an important one.  

Life Could Be a Dream premieres in Australian cinemas on 14 May.

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