To Dream is a 2018 drama about two self-destructive teenagers who won’t let anything come between their friendship and their ultimate plan, but when dysfunctional family life becomes intolerable, loyalty leads one to make a choice that will change their lives forever.
The word ‘dream’ has a number of meanings and connotations of course, from the literal definitions of seeing various images during sleep to conceiving of something desirable for the future. In director Nicole Albarelli‘s feature-length debut film To Dream, it’s certainly the latter yet the inclusion of ‘to’ in the title is a surprisingly weighty addition, ultimately defining much about the film’s message, driving the point that most dreams are unachievable, even if they drive us to wild lengths in hope of the opposite.
The film follows two young men, Luke (Ed Hayter) and Tommy (Freddie Thorp), living in a rough end of London. They’ve been friends since childhood, bonded by the inescapable neighborhood and the bits of rebellion they can conjure up to feel free. Both have dropped out of school and still live at home with big plans of one day making it to the United States, where all dreams come true. Luke’s father (Frank Jakeman) is physically abusive, an alcoholic who sees little potential in his son, angrily berating him at any turn. Tommy, on the other hand, is on a precarious ledge, close to falling into a life of real crime, Luke the only one keeping him from crossing over. However, Luke’s new girlfriend, Nikki (Diana Vickers) becomes a wedge, and soon, things become desperate for the two boys as saving their hopes for keeping the dream alive splinters.
Albarelli plays within a wide gap between the generations, each cast in shadow by the other, young fearing they will become like the older and the older seeing themselves in their young, longing for a do over. The story lives mostly in the destructive paths of Luke and Tommy but takes time to peel back some layers on Luke’s father as well, giving some depth to the otherwise obvious movie stereotype. There’s genuine imbalance between the father and the son and the rage brewing on either side feels earned, especially when Albarelli teases with flighty flashbacks to better times, always keeping the ‘dream’ in play. Meanwhile, the spiral of decline swallows them whole as a staggering reveal late in the game puts a new spin on all of it. Including the title.
Interspersed among all this are shots of airplanes far above in silky blue skies wistfully fleeing our grounded point of view. There’s a longingness to these images that reminds us how distant and even futilely out reach a dream may be. There’s an intentional bleakness to how it plays out as Tommy crumbles and Luke can’t find stability, Luke’s father soon fatefully wound up in all of it. Choices are made between them as drugs, sex and violence leads to devastation that is unexpected and chaotic.
The three leads, Hayter, Thorp, and Jakeman, find great unity in their triangle, the simplicity of what their story initially appears evolving into a much more complex relationship that is heartbreaking by its end. These are challenging parts that all three bring to life with a particular rawness that really has impact. To Dream is an authentic tragedy, a rarity for how well it threads it all together and while there is a kind of hopelessness to it all, it is nonetheless uncompromising in its finale. Highly recommended.