According
to imdb, this is the ninth time Cary Elwes has played a doctor. Considering
several of those times has been as Dr. Lawrence Gordon in the Saw franchise, he hasn’t been a
particularly helpful doctor. That is true again for Dr. Richard Sommers.
Initially, he appeared to cure disturbed young Zach Bradford, but he really
just kicked some seriously sinister issues down the road. The supernatural
chickens finally come home to roost in Rick Bieber’s Don’t Sleep (trailer
here),
which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.
Bradford
used to have nightmares about a doppelganger inhabiting a fake-looking
nightmare world, who would replace him in the real world once he gained
sufficient strength. His memories of that period are hazy, but apparently the
nightmares eventually went away. Everything seems fine now. He is in his final
year of law school and about to move in with his girlfriend Shawn Edmon. They
even find the perfect “love nest,” right across the street from the McMansion
owned by their super-cool landlords, Vincent and Jo Marino.
The
Marinos often have the kids over for dinner with his spry old father.
Unfortunately, the jawa-like creatures that once haunted Bradford’s dreams have
started tormenting Mr. Marino senior. When they get done with him, they will
move onto Jo Marino, while toying with the increasingly freaked out Bradford.
It gets so bad, he will seek out Dr. Sommers to ask, what the heck, dude?
Even
though the film is called Don’t Sleep,
most of the bad stuff happens while the characters are wide awake. It ought to
be called Don’t Rent to Cary Elwes’
Patients. Logic is not real priority here. To be fair, extensive reshoots may
not have been an option given the death in 2015 of co-star Alex Rocco. Of
course, that also implies this film has been on the shelf for a while.
In
addition to the late, great Rocco (Moe Greene in The Godfather), who is both creepy and tragic as Mr. Marino, Don’t Sleep also mind-blowingly features
Jill Hennessy as Bradford’s mom. Wow, seriously. Rounding out the recognizable
names, Drea de Matteo falls apart spectacularly as Jo Marino. Of course, Elwes
is in his element playing Dr. Sommers, the cold fish child psychologist. The
problem here is not weak support. In fact, you could argue Alex Carter has
almost too much screen presence as Vincent Marino, given how drab and passive
Dominic Sherwood and Charlbi Dean Kriek are as the young lovers.
