I love it when I watch a movie and, as the ending credits roll, I have the mixed feelings of left-over emotions from the film, combined with the knowledge of having just watched something amazing.
So what movie am I talking about? Obviously it’s called Lost Dream, as seen on the left.
I didn’t check the release date before watching, so I had some trouble placing it at the beginning (it’s from 2009). The way it is filmed actually made me wonder, if it was made in the late 90ies or around 2000 in some parts, but that’s what low budget movies look like anyway. It fit the atmosphere.
The plot summary frankly sounds horrible, even more than that, but I gave it a chance and I’m glad I did.
The son of a corrupt Congressman, Perry, has lost faith in all the things he held true - his family, girlfriend, and the American Dream. He finds himself emotionally bereft and depressed. In search of self-discovery, Perry meets Giovanni, an art student with an unrealized gift, Giovanni is Perry’s polar opposite. Raised by abusive parents and placed into a series of foster homes, Giovanni is brooding and nihilistic. He lives in an altered state full of drugs and sex, capped by a deadly game with a gun and a single bullet! Perry sees Gio as a free spirit, incorruptible and impervious to the pressures of society. Gio believes Perry to be a spoiled rich boy dabbling in existential angst. Perry needs Gio to believe that his pain is real, while Giovanni implores Perry to play his game of Russian roulette to prove the validity of his suffering. As Perry and Gio’s relationship changes, and drug-fueled emotions churn, their fates linger at the tip of a revolver with a single bullet. (form imdb)
Personally I think the story sounds like something I’d like to dislike, but it worked out, at least for me it did. It’s not completely realistic, but it’s also not completely wrong.
There is a lot of similarity in the character Perry (Michael Welch, who was apparently in some Twilight movie…?) and the “modern adolescent”. I felt that he desperately tried to find fault in everything and having a need to be at odds with the world, thus harbouring some kind of angsty depression.
I liked the idea of putting someone like that in front of someone with real issues. You can’t completely dismiss Perry’s troubles, but Gio (Shaun Sipos, for whom I wish that Melrose Place gets cancelled, seeing how he can actually act) certainly had more to deal with in his life.
Strangely enough I can’t really say what made me like this movie. Thinking about it, there are a lot of halves: the story is good, but not really; the actors and their characters carry the story, but not to the full extend either. I guess you could say the balance made this movie, it had the right amount of character, story, drama and realism.
All in all, you could say the ending was to be expected but it still left you a little shocked. I think that’s what the whole movie is: you know what’s going to happen, but you still can’t stop yourself from watching, wondering and hoping that maybe you’d be wrong.