Mel teaches him a few techniques such as flipping light switches and staring at his hands while in-dream to ground himself. As Gary works to get better and longer sleep, he frustrates Dora by putting soundproofing on the walls and blacking out the windows and the two continue to grow further apart. Then one day, an amazing thing happens! Gary sees Anna's lovely face on the side of a bus. As it turns out, she is a model and really exists. Gary reveals this new-found knowledge to Paul, who is aware of Gary's crazy dreams and Paul arranges for this dream woman, whose actual name is Melodia, to come do a photo shoot at the agency. As Gary gets to know Melodia, he sees that she is in no way his dream woman, opting to wear her hair wild and free and dress in rock star clothing rather than the white tuxedoed creature with the pulled-back hair that he is accustomed to. Melodia, who is clearly a very sexual person, soon grows tired of Gary and his attempts to change her appearance and she brushes him off.
Dora takes a last minute trip to Italy to meet with a new artist and she and Gary part ways on ugly terms. Consequently, Gary's dreams start to play host to "dream monsters", as Mel calls them, nightmarish characters that interrupt his perfect dreams. Soon, Anna is angry with him in his dreams and Dora is there too, with many Italian men in tow. No longer a place of refuge, Gary finds himself incredibly frustrated. When Dora returns from Italy unannounced to the darkened apartment, she grows further angry and leaves to go stay with Terry, Paul's estranged wife who left him while he was having a fling with a gymnast. Gary realizes he loves Dora when he has a dream that he is once again a musician and a star and has written a beautiful piano composition. He records the tune and brings it to Dora's gallery during a show, only to see her leaving with another man. While I won't blow the ending for you, it doesn't end happily, per se.
A lot about this movie reminded me of Vanilla Sky, in which Penelope Cruz also starred. While not as dark as Vanilla Sky, there were clear resemblances. The acting was fine, but I just kept waiting for the story to go somewhere. By the time the film draws to a close, you see that no one really has a happy ending here and it leaves the viewer wanting. This film is Jake Paltrow's (Gwyneth's brother) writing and directorial debut and while not a bad effort, it just left me cold. Once again, while not a bad film, I just found it unfulfilling (sort of like Gary's life) and would have a hard time recommending it.
