Dream for an Insomniac

Frankie (Ione Skye) is looking for a man "with the soul of a poet and eyes like Frank Sinatra." Her world is black and white--literally in this film--until the blue eyes of David (Mackenzie Astin) enter the café where she works with her uncle and cousin. But Frankie's about to leave San Francisco for L.A. with her best friend, Allison (Jennifer Aniston), where they'll both become actresses. Time is running out for Frankie to convince David that she's the love of his life. Unfortunately for Frankie, and this film, the lackluster plot and trite characters don't give her much to work with. The dialogue is atrocious (Frankie says, with complete sincerity, "I'm going to circumnavigate his soul until he's anchored on all sides by my love"), and her character is so utterly spoiled and obnoxious you can't understand what David--or her friends--see in her. What makes the film all the more disappointing is the promising cast. Jennifer Aniston is underused, and Michael Landes does the best he can with his clichéd role as a gay man who desperately wants to come out to his father but can't work up the courage. Dream for an Insomniac tries too hard to be the kind of hip '90s love story that films such as Walking and Talking and Naked in New York succeed in being. --Jenny Brown