Lucid review – eerie drama tumbles into incoherence
A man’s inability to tell dreams from reality makes for a smart premise but alarms sound when the plot begins to unravel
At one point in this British drama, Theo (Cristian Solimeno), the sharp-tongued bullying employer of protagonist Zel (Laurie Calvert), describes the latter as having all the charm of a “pubic hair in a cheese sandwich”. That’s maybe a bit harsh, but not entirely wrong. Introverted, shuffling young twentysomething Zel is far less engaging than practically every other character in the film, from his nagging mum (Sadie Frost) who swings by briefly to complain about his flat’s hygiene and is barely seen again, to the more compelling figure of Elliot (Billy Zane), Zel’s enigmatic, only-a-bit-creepy neighbour who gets him into lucid dreaming as way to deal with his social anxiety.
Writing down his dreams in a journal every morning seems to help Zel become more assertive, capable of asking out his beautiful neighbour (Felicity Gilbert), who may or may not be a dancer at the private members’ club where Zel works as a car park attendant.