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Purely Joyful Movie!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

DREAMS OF A LIFE is a feature length 2011 docu-drama by filmmaker Carol Morley that tells the true story of Joyce Carol Vincent, a woman who died in her flat in London around 2003 and wasn't found until more than three years later. The story itself is a great one, one of the most tragic tales you could imagine and a true reflection on the careless nature of modern society, but DREAMS OF A LIFE drops the ball along the way.Morley messes up by focusing way too much on recreating Vincent's brief life as a celebration instead of really getting to the heart of the manner of her death. After all, it's the unusual circumstances surrounding the death that makes this such a good story, but we learn next to nothing about it. Just how could somebody die in the heart of a heaving metropolis, with the TV on no less, and nobody realise for three years? Instead, there are endless bite-sized interviews with friends who knew here, and a good half an hour of excruciating singing as Morley explores Vincent's passion for music. All of this needed to be jettisoned and replaced with an investigative journalist doing a voice-over and exploring the mysteries that remain unsolved to date.

The premise behind this film was quite the teaser; how tragic for someone to die in their own apartment and not be found (missed) for three years. How could this happen? What is the back story? Unfortunately, there wasn't much of one.Not to sound cruel, but the reasons she was not found are probably the same reasons that this movie was not compelling - her life was was tragically mundane, as I'm sure many of our lives are as well. Whatever the circumstances are of my own demise, I don't think it will justify a compelling movie about my life. That's not to say that mine has not been a wonderful and indeed fascinating life, but merely a normal life.The movie relies on interviews with former colleagues and casual friends who do a lot of speculation as to how this could have happened - with few facts. They continually talk about how tragic the circumstances of her "death" were, interjecting baseless speculation about murder or depression. In fact, the circumstances surrounding her death did not seem to be particularly odd - she likely died of natural causes in her apartment. Given that she had (perhaps inexplicably but perhaps not) withdrawn into isolation, it is not that odd to think that she might have died alone. Perhaps over the course of the three years, old friends and colleagues did try to call her, without assuming anything out of the ordinary when she failed to answer - this speculation is as valid as that found in the movie.There was only one character, a colleague with whom she had shared a love interest, that had any compelling insight into her life or who displayed any real emotions. The others were too ancillary to her life to provide any visceral reaction to her death.The movie would have been better served if it speculated more on how this story might have been different in the age of Facebook: Is it less likely for this to happen in today's socially-connected world of tweets, status updates and event invites? Or the movie could have delved more into how institutions failed - how did it happen that the failure to pay mortgage, electricity, water didn't cause concern? The movie did provide an interesting re-creation of what her last day might have been like, based on forensic evidence at the scene. But even that was rife with speculation and presented as an overly dramatic re- imagining of her last day.I do believe that everyone's life is precious and it is tragic when anyone dies alone so, yes, I did empathize with the character in the story. But I felt the same degree of empathy after reading the movie's teaser as I did after seeing the film - it didn't add to my empathy or understanding.

I remember learning about the discovery of Joyce Vincent's body a few years ago and thinking what a sad and disturbing news story it was, almost beggaring belief in present day civilised society. This superbly and sensitively crafted drama documentary from Carol Morley answers a mere handful of the many questions which inevitably followed while inevitably producing a myriad of others.It is a salutary reminder that life is both precious and mysterious, things are often not what they seem and how we all think we know our friends but in reality our comprehension is limited to what we are actually permitted to see and understand.The most refreshing and at the same time most disturbing impression given is that Joyce's friends appear to be genuine, caring people but despite this, she still slipped through the emotional and physical net which binds humanity together.The power of this film makes the loss almost as tangible to the audience as it must have felt to Martin. It reminds us that although time is often regarded as a great unhurried and invisible healer, it can also be corrosively destructive.Plenty to contemplate here...

The film's UK release date coincided with Christmas 2011, which was deliberate as the subject of the film, Joyce Carol Vincent, died from causes unknown shortly before Christmas 2003. Her body was not discovered until January 2007 when bailiffs acting on behalf of a housing association arrived at her flat with a repossession order as her rent had not been paid for 3 years. Questions were asked by her local MP, Lynne Featherstone (who appears in the film), as to how it was possible that her death had been unnoticed by anyone during the three-year period. The unusual and poignant nature of Joyce's demise led the film maker, Carol Morley, to begin investigating who Joyce had been and how she had been so abandoned in death. The film is the result of her efforts to piece together Joyce Carol Vincent.Not long before her death we learn that Joyce was hospitalised for a peptic ulcer; she listed her next-of-kin at the hospital as her bank manager describing him as the person who knew her best. Yet the film features people from her life - ex-boyfriends, flat mates, friends, ex-colleagues - that she could have called upon. Although it is easy to believe that the circumstances of her death and body's subsequent discovery were the fault of a society whose care for its members has unravelled Al, one of Joyce's ex-boyfriends, states in the film that Joyce had some responsibility for her demise by pulling away and isolating herself from those who knew and cared about her. Beneath the sociological comment the film offers is a more profound study in Joyce's character and the tragedy that befell her. Indeed it seems as though a combination of traumas in her life had led Joyce, a great keeper of secrets, to isolate herself completely.The film is an amazing production as the director, Morley, combines documentary style interviews, which flow naturally from the subjects, combined with a fictional account of Joyce's life informed by the interviews but fictionalised at other points. What is even more remarkable is that Morley painstakingly unearthed all the interviewees, pictures, film footage, sound recordings etc as none were available to the authorities in the aftermath of Joyce's death. The film also features Morley's montage of Joyce's time line from birth to death and what she discovers of events along the way. Interestingly Joyce's family did not want to be involved with the making of the film, wishing to remain anonymous. Amongst the many things that Joyce Carol Vincent did in her life was to meet Nelson Mandela and the film ends with actual footage of Mandela addressing a small musical gathering at which Joyce was present and we see her on film. She was an unusual person, possessed of talents most of which were never realised. As one interviewee remarks (her ex-boyfriend Al) she never seemed to have a future and did not seem fully invested in life. The title is a play on both Joyce sleepwalking through life as well as the dream imagined for the viewer of Joyce's life.Joyce sings during the film a song the refrain of which is 'my smile is a frown upside down'. She really reminds me of the man in Stevie Smith's poem 'Not Waving But Drowning', who "was much further out than you thought and not waving but drowning ... I was much too far out all my life ..."