Don't normally go for documentaries at the cinema but I'm glad I did because Dreams of Life is really very good, the sort of film that you have to see with someone because there is so much to talk about afterwards.
It's about Joyce Carol Vincent who, at the age of 38, was found dead in her north London bedsit by bailiffs. Her body had lain undisturbed for three years. Beside her were wrapped Christmas presents.
In the film friends and ex-boyfriends talk about the Joyce they knew and her life as they perceived it. The interviews are interspersed with photo's, clippings from the press and the journalist's investigative notes. There are also scenes re-enacted by an actress.
What soon becomes obvious is even those close to her didn't really know her as well as they thought. Nonetheless, this isn't the sort of woman who's three year absence you could imagine going unoticed. She wasn't a loner or a drinker or on drugs. She was well liked and thought of uniformly as a nice person, good-looking and not short of attention. It is probably the most disturbing aspect of the whole story.
She had good jobs and a string of nice boyfriends - one of whom worked in the music industry which resulted in her meeting a clutch of famous names from the 80s. She even met Nelson Mandela and there is a poignant clip of her in a crowd of people listening to him speak.
It is an intriguing and very sad tale. There are lots of questions that remain unanswered which will haunt you.
Definitely worth seeing and I'm going to give it 80%. It's got 78% on IMDb (no Metacritic score) and 86% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and 100% of site visitors have given it 3.5 stars out of five or above.
Even the trailer is haunting and disturbing. How could it be possible? It must have been very sad to see the movie.
Posted by: Jessica | 12/22/2011 at 01:39 PM