In many ways, "The Good Night" is like the Thurber story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". It's also about a dull man who retreats into a fantasy world instead of living out his fantasies for real. But unlike "Mitty", "The Good Night" is incredibly dull and lifeless....and makes for difficult viewing.

Gary (Martin Freeman) is a man whose best years, it seems, are behind him. In his youth, he'd been in a rock band. Now, he's writing music for TV commercials and his marriage is hollow and unfulfilling. So, he begins to retreat into a fantasy world in his dreams where a perfect woman (Penelope Cruz) loves him unconditionally and wants him physically. What's to become of his marriage and what will happen if he actually in real life meets a woman who seems to be the fantasy lady?

It's odd that the film is about a guy who writes music and yet there is so little incidental music in the film. Too often it's quiet and flat...which, I understand , it a metaphor for Gary's inner life. But it makes for tough viewing and the film really could have used an infusion of energy.

By the way, although I am a trained therapist, I've never put a ton of stock in dream interpretation...particularly Freudian dream interpretation. But clearly this film IS incredibly Freudian and Gary tends to use his fantasies as wish fulfillment....and Analytic psychotherapists would no doubt adore the movie since it's based so much on Freudian concepts.

Overall, it's not a bad film but it's also one which COULD have been so much better. A story about mid-life crises and disaffection is potentially very watchable and insightful...but this one just didn't hit that mark. The issues it touches on are great and I liked the ending...but why did the journey there need to be so lifeless?

Former British pop star Gary Shaller (Martin Freeman) is struggling with a mid-life crisis. He's writing jingles for his more successful former bandmate Paul (Simon Pegg) and in a troubled marriage with Dora (Gwyneth Paltrow). He starts having dreams about Anna (Penélope Cruz). He learns to connect more with his dreamgirl through lucid dreaming with the help of Mel (Danny DeVito).

Jake Paltrow got a lot of friends and his daughter to do his film. His directing skills are not good enough to make this cinematic. Even his visual flourishes lack a sharpness in their execution. The writing is not much in terms of drama. It's an idea looking for intensity. This does have a great cast although it's hard to buy Freeman as a former pop star. It's not his looks as much as his Office persona. On the other hand, Cruz is easily a dreamgirl and cool chick. There is a way to intensify this concept and story but this is not it.

I didn't know anything about "The Good Night" when I turned it on...and I'm still not sure that I know what it was supposed to be about. Martin Freeman (of "The Office") plays Gary, a former pop star now in a pseudo-relationship with Dora (Gwyneth Paltrow). It looks as if his life is truly going nowhere, when he starts having fantasies featuring a strange woman (Penelope Cruz) who appears in advertisements. I think that that was the plot.

I assume that the movie must be a look at Gary's being nearly at the end of his emotional rope, but I found it a little too weird to really follow. A movie dealing with this topic that I recommend is John G. Avildsen's "Save the Tiger", starring Jack Lemmon. Maybe I would have liked this one better had they elaborated on how Gary's experiences change his life - if at all - in the long run. Not terrible, but not one that I would recommend above all others.

Also starring Danny DeVito and Michael Gambon.