Dream Lover MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 1/2 Content: -3

Ray Reardon (James Spader) is a successful architect, recently divorced. His friend, Norman (Larry Miller), later throws a party where Ray meets Lena (Madchen Amick). Lena seems like the perfect woman to Ray and he marries her. But Ray is tormented by dreams of a carnival where a sideshow clown leads him to the tent of "Dream Girls." Is Lena the girl of his dreams or a nightmare? After a few suspicious incidents increase his misgivings about Lena, Ray discovers her "real" name is Thelma. Lena has Ray committed for psychiatric evaluation, later telling him that she had planned it all. This suspenseful, but slow-moving mystery thriller seems longer than it is.

Ray divorces his first wife, generously giving her everything she asks for. When propositioned at Norman's party, he declines. Yet, a short time later he and Lena spend the weekend together having sex in a fairly graphic scene with brief female frontal nudity. Lena lives a life of lies. Unfaithful throughout her marriage, Lena even refuses to confirm that Ray is the father of their children. A considerable amount of the profanity and obscene language comes during angry outbursts during confrontations with Lena and at Ray's psychiatric evaluation. When he accuses Lena of having an affair, he slaps her in anger. Violence also includes a choking, and bruises on Lena indicate that she has been sexually abused by her lover. With sex, lies, and psychiatry, this is not a dream of a movie.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: Gramercy Pictures, 9247 Alden Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210