SHAKING DREAM LAND

I'm not sure how excited you'll be to contemplate child molestation when you're looking for an evening of DVD fun.

Shaking Dream Land is like an extended After School Special for adults. If you relate to the subject matter, it might be enlightening and therapeutic, but for the rest of us, it's like watching a train wreck unfold on daytime television. It's strangely captivating, like a juicy episode of Dr. Phil, but I can't see people clamoring to watch it on movie night.

When Robert (Philip Winchester) and Alice (Cloudia Swann) walk down the aisle, it seems like the happy ending to a fairy tale romance. They are young, lovely, and hopeful, and news that they are expecting a child only adds to the perfect picture. Despite his excitement at the prospect of fatherhood, Robert's world begins crumbling around him. He starts having upsetting dreams, inappropriate thoughts, and begins dabbling in pornography and prostitutes.

Where is all of this coming from? Robert can't figure it out until he mentions that he used to look at porn with his dad... when he was four years old. To Robert this was a fact of life, but the look on his friend's face says something very different—something along the lines of, "Dude, that's sick!"

At this point, the mental wheels start turning, and Robert begins to question what his father did to him. Unfortunately his marriage is already in a state of ruin, and Alice has gone to stay with her mother. Weirdly, she seemed to know about his impulses before she married him, but trusted that he would change his ways.

When it finally comes out that Robert's father is a bona fide pedophile, Alice panics. Does this mean Robert will follow in his footsteps? How can she trust him with her child? But Robert pleads with her to work with him. After all, marriage is about sticking together through sickness and health: this doesn't exclude mental illness or perversion.

Alice is a frustrating character. At first you can't believe she's put up with Robert's freaky behavior for as long as she has. How could she marry him if his affection for porn and prostitutes bothered her? And then, when she finally gets the guts to leave him, you almost wish she'd stay. At least by then you know that none of this is Robert's fault. It's quite a quandary Alice faces, and it's interesting when you compare her to Robert's mother. She knew all about her husband's behavior, but never did anything to protect her children. Ultimately, Alice redeems herself by making an effort to do the right thing for herself, her child, and her husband.

Shaking Dream Land brings up a lot of weighty matters that should not be swept under the carpet. It shows Robert taking control of his life and walking away from the parents who betrayed him so profoundly, and it shows that victims of sexual abuse need our compassion if they are to overcome the demons that haunt them. Having said that, I'm not sure how excited you'll be to contemplate child molestation when you're looking for an evening of DVD fun.