EVERYBODY'S GOT A DREAM

I saw this fascinating movie (DVD) last night, kind of predictable but real too: called Dreamland. I watched it as I often do, one eye on it and another working on my computer. Dreamland was the name of a trailer park and housed the saddest of society, mostly what we would call lowlifes. Not to emotionally maim everybody who lives in a trailer park but the stereotype from whence comes the name, "trailer trash." Obviously, I'm not too PC, but don't call us Don Imus. What struck a ready difference were mainly 3 very tattered teenagers. And, yet, they all, in their own way, had a "spark."

This whole "spark" thing fascinates me. I've read about it before--some youngster who has the worst life situation imaginable and yet he/she has the "spark," the ability to rise above it. A recent example is memoir of Hersi Ali in her book, Infidel. She has the "spark." In Dreamland, one was dying with some disease, although she was beautiful and had an enormous imagination; another really intelligent, and a the third character with great ambition.

Movies, of course, as we know, can make anything happen they want too--they're called, "writers." But, the movie featured every social problem almost that we see: the father of one whose wife had died and he would not venture outside, mostly sat in his mobile home and drank. Another couple, wife, a former famous singer, who had developed stage fright.

John Corbett of Northern Exposure fame (Northern Exposure was a TV program several years ago that took place in Alaska) was the only known actor. In Northern Exposure, Corbett played a disk jockey who was laid back, hippish, smooth, and danced with the stars. Audrey, the protagonist who, eventually witnesses her father getting his life together and her best friend (the sick one) getting a grip on life--all of this not devoid of drama. And, her friend boy who became her boyfriend and followed through on his ambition to be a college basketball player. She was not going to college although accepted to U. of AZ, (Dreamland was in New Mexico). She's not going and then it all comes together and she decides to follow her dream. Besides, she's a poet.

Lots of nuances in the movie. And, although maybe one of those movies that went straight to DVD. I liked it.I like movies that somehow ties it all together in the end and folks are relatively happy. My only criticism and its minor is that I wish the movie had developed the characters of the singer and her boyfriend a little more. Much redemption in this movie. 2 parachutes.