In Your Dreams Review: What Dreams May Come

Our dreams are what we make them. Whether they exist in the real world or in the world we create when our heads hit the pillow tonight, we manifest the dreams that we have. In Alex Woo and co-Director Erik Benson’s ‘In Your Dreams,’ that is what Stevie and Elliot are attempting to do. The duos’ attempt to control their dreams, find the Sandman, and keep their parents together delivers a pretty joyful and fun family film, complete with all the tropes one would expect from a Netflix family film. That doesn’t make it bad, but it does make it predictable. Nonetheless, ‘In Your Dreams’ is a lot of fun and worth a watch with your kiddos.
Stevie and Elliott have noticed that their parents have been fighting…a lot. When they overhear their

Parents discussing mom’s move for a new job and dad’s apprehension about that, the kids decide that they have to fix it somehow. After finding a book about the Sand Man in the basement of a thrift store, they think they have the answer to their dilemma. What ensues is a truly fun and tender adventure. While it’s overly predictable (what children’s movie isn’t these days), it’s still a whole lot of fun. The animation is bright and colorful. The children travel to fun and unique worlds. What’s not to love?

The chemistry between Jolie Hoang-Rappaport and Elias Janssen gives ‘In Your Dreams’ its soul. Both of the young actors in the film are incredible. The back-and-forth banter felt real. I have siblings. This is how my siblings and I interacted. HELL! It’s how we still interact, but, at the end of the day, they’re still your siblings and you care for them deeply on some level. The supporting cast, including Simu Liu as Dad, Cristin Milioti as Mom (ahem…she really was the mother, I’ll see myself out), and the iconic Craig Robinson as the hilarious Baloney Tony, was stupendous as well. Liu and Milioti will hopefully see some kind of awards nods, if not wins, for the track, “The Holding On and the Letting Go,” but it is the young cast that really made ‘In Your Dreams’ a family movie night must-see.

While beautiful, ‘In Your Dreams’ is not short of its own warts. As was previously mentioned, the film is easily predictable. That’s par for the course for a standard children’s movie, but if you want something special film filmmakers need to go outside of that, and ‘In Your Dreams’ absolutely had the potential to do so. Throw a curveball. Make kids think. They like to be engaged in complicated ways, too, sometimes. While “The Holid On and the Letting Go” will hopefully see some awards love, the other songs were not as good. They were downright boring in some cases.

‘In Your Dreams’ at its core is an exploration of family and how, at times, it can be extremely complicated. The directors gave that delicate matter the love, attention, and care it needed. While not perfect, ‘In Your Dreams’ is a beautiful take on the dreams we have and the dreams we make, worthy of a Friday night on the couch with your family.

Rating: 6/10

Now Streaming on Netflix