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by Frank Wilkins
Dreamcatcher, William Goldman's screen adaptation of Stephen King's gargantuan novel of the same name, is a sprawling mess of a film that flounders around on the screen until its viewers succumb to either sheer boredom or utter confusion. To say that Dreamcatcher doesn't have a distinct direction would be a serious understatement. It is a psychological drama that wants to be a horror film – except it's not scary. It's a coming of age story that wants to be a buddy flick – except it's too scary. There's such a lack of script management that I often found myself giggling at segments that weren't meant to be funny. Does that make it a comedy?

I'm certain most of Dreamcatcher's problems stem from attempting to condense a 600-page book down to a 100-page script. But I'm also convinced the segments that were left on the cutting room floor are what we should have been shown.

We meet Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damien Lewis), Beav (Jason Lee) and Pete (Timothy Olyphant), four now grown childhood friends on their annual pilgrimage to a hunting cabin in the woods of Maine. We learn through a flashback that twenty years ago they rescued a young mentally challenged boy, named Duddits (Donny Wahlberg), from a gang of bullies. It seems that ever since this humanitarian encounter, our four heroes have been linked by telepathic powers that enable them to read the minds of others.

Meanwhile, back at the cabin...a lost hunter named McCarthy (Eric Keenleyside) turns up disoriented and hungry. After a long bout of intestinal rumblings and boisterous flatulence, a long, eel-like creature blows out the seat of the hunter's pants and erupts from his anus displaying a mouthful of shark-like teeth and an attitude to match.

This is the point in the movie at which Goldman and director Kasdan lose their grip on the story. Whereas the first part of the film was genuinely intriguing, a combination of overly exposed Hollywood special effects and disjointed storytelling overtakes the latter portion. We learn that aliens are attempting to take over the world, fighting a counteroffensive lead by cold-blooded alien hunter Col. Abe Curtis (Morgan Freeman). Col. Curtis will literally stop at nothing, including the killing of innocent civilians, to impede the advance of the alien invaders.

In their retelling of King's story, the filmmakers repeatedly feed us wild assumptions and out-of-the-blue matters of fact that we're expected to accept as so. I could actually sense that they didn't know how to provide stability to the meandering script. The last 45 minutes of Dreamcatcher become such a jumbled conglomeration of disconnected subplots and meaningless leftover thoughts that by the time the credits rolled I felt as if I'd been subjected to a two-hour interview with Charles Manson.

Frank Wilkins

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Screen formats: Widescreen anamorphic, 2.35:1

Language and Sound: English (Dolby Digital 5.1); French Dolby Digital 5.1

Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; original ending; deleted scenes; "DreamWriter" featurette; visual effects featurette; making-of featurette; DVD-ROM features.

• Dreamwriter - An interview with Stephen King - A 7-minute long interview with author of the novel as he discusses the origins of the novel.
• Dreammakers - A Journey Through the Production - A 19-minute long making-of featurette. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the principal cast and crew
• DreamWeavers - The Visual Effects of Dreamcarcher - An 8-minute short covering Jeff Olson's major speial effects sequences.
• Deleted Scenes - Is actually four scenes that were included in the movie.
• Original Ending - 8 1/2 minute long alternate ending. Doesn't change the meaning of the finished film.
• Teaser Trailer - 2 1/2 minutes long
  
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