Science of Sleep, The

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

An indie version of Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," albeit with none of the star power, a quarter of the budget, half the angst, and twice the charm.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

It's not likely you'll see a film more visually exhilarating until, well, Gondry's next.

TV Guide Ethan Alter

Bernal continues to demonstrate an impressive range; the character requires the normally laid-back actor to be a wild ball of energy, and he's more than up to the challenge. His performance is hilarious, heartfelt and more than a little creepy, which could also be said about the movie itself.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

This scruffy, unkempt tale lacks the narrative satisfaction of Kaufman's dramatic design, but between the chaotic zigs and creative jags, it proclaims its own kind of messy authenticity and a bittersweet beauty.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

This fascinating and occasionally transporting film never quite transforms into something really great.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Very difficult to characterize and that's why I like it. The best I can do is to call it a sunny tragedy.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

It's rare for young actors to exude as much charisma and charm as Gainsbourg and García Bernal.

Slate Dana Stevens

To me, the movie feels like a small but ingeniously crafted gift.

Film Threat Sally Foster

The Science of Sleep truly has to be seen to be believed.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Sweet, crazy, and tinged with sadness, Michel Gondry's new feature The Science of Sleep is a wondrous concoction.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

For the soul of Gondry's work, it seems to me, is neither its soaring flights of visual fancy nor its sometimes crude slapstick, but rather its pained understanding of a generation hopelessly tongue-tied when it comes to matters of the heart.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

No one who sees it will confuse it with anything else. Fans of Gondry's DIY low-tech aesthetic, which he blends, as always, with exceptionally sophisticated animation techniques, will adore it.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Gondry is a soft surrealist without much of a sociopolitical agenda, closer to Dr. Seuss than Luis Buñuel,

Empire Oliver Richards

It suffers occasionally from self-consciousness and over-indulgence in its own oddity, but Gondry’s grasp of emotion and visuals is enchanting. Even if he seems several sandwiches short of a picnic.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Never intends to be deeper than a magician's hat, and its wonderfully low-tech stop-motion technique is not only a nod to Czech animator Jan Svankmajer but a tacit rebuke to computer-graphics-heavy fantasies such as "The Chronicles of Narnia" or the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

I think it's a mess, but - and this is a major caveat - an endearing, beautiful, hopelessly honest mess that's supported by a pair of performances so unnaturally natural that they draw you in and clutch you, struggling, to their flipping, flopping hearts.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

This pop-up book of a film is an ideal arrangement between director and star.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

The title is all that's boring about director Michel Gondry's latest mind bender, as trippy as LSD.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The look of the film is dazzling, even hallucinatory, and the concept is beyond quirky as conceived by Gondry, a talented visual stylist, in his first film based on his own script. The story is compelling, unconventional and diverting in its blurring of reality and fantasy.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Unlike Gondry's previous features, Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine, Science lacks the sturdy armature of a Charlie Kaufman screenplay to support its eccentricities. The flood of delight in the film's first 90 minutes slowed to a trickle and, finally, a drip.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It only works about half the time, but it's an interesting half.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Fusing animation and live action with a series of outrageous props, Gondry veers dangerously close to being precious. But make no mistake: Gondry's hallucinatory brilliance holds you in thrall.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

So while The Science of Sleep may not, in the end, be terribly deep, it is undoubtedly -- and deeply -- refreshing.

Variety Todd McCarthy

With Mexican star Gael Garcia Bernal energetically playing a vulnerable graphic artist with a hyperactive imagination and little confidence with women, picture has an overriding quality of sweetness that will prove endearing to audiences, especially younger females.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The Science of Sleep is like a weird dream that tugs at the memory throughout the day with its intriguing, misshapen pieces.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The result is a charming, inventive, ambitious, surreal mess.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason McBride

It's this edge that saves The Science of Sleep from its own whimsy.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Watching it is like being the only non-stoned person in the room as someone tells a long, long story.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Certainly pleasant, and occasionally endearing, but it's also strangely empty and unsatisfying, like hearing about someone else's wild dream: You can appreciate the details, but you don't really care how it turns out.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

What "Eternal Sunshine" did with magic and whimsy, The Science of Sleep accomplishes with confusion and pretentiousness.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

A frantic and funny diversion, but it pales and tires before its time is up. It doesn't know the meaning of enough.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The Science of Sleep transports you, but it strands you, too. Apart from the time-machine bit and two or three other daft exchanges, Gondry’s scenes tend to circle around the same drain: the hero’s insufferable narcissism.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

You have to identify pretty strongly with suffering artistes to find anything to root for in The Science of Sleep.