Obsessive dream

Ed Saxon ( Jeff Daniels ), a college professor, wakes up and discovers that his wife Eve has not returned home. He takes some pills, then decides to call her friend Susie ( Molly Price ), and asks what he should do in this case. Susie offers to go to the local hospital, but they assure that they do not have any information about his wife. Ed decides to call the police. Detective Derm ( Gil Bellows ) comes to his house to sort things out. He also takes obscure pills that resemble Ed pills. They check the workplace of Yves, find several messages on the answering machine. One of them was left by George ( Julian MacMahon ), Yves' work colleague. Soon it turns out that the car of the missing wife was left near the house of this same George. While worrying about his wife, Ed is forced to think about the fact that he misses work in college, where he must conduct classes.

Ed suffers from hallucinations, temporarily disconnects from consciousness and generally behaves strangely. George calls him and threatens that he will kill him if something happened to Eve. Ed also receives several calls from work, where everyone is unclear what is happening to him. Sadie ( Emily Bergl ), one of his students, who is very worried about him, comes to him. Ed decides not to tell her the whole truth about his wife. Instead, he says that she went to visit her mother. In the bathroom, Sadie faints and breaks her nose, and Ed offers her a change of clothes - his wife's sweater. She says that she heard a female scream, to which Ed replies that he often hears the screams of neighbors who constantly swear. Sadie puts on her sweater and leaves.

Ed goes down to the basement, where he sees leaking pipes. There he has a vision with his mother cursing him. In horror, he runs out of the basement and hears a knock on the door. Opening the door, Ed receives a blow to the face from George, who wants to find Eve. George admits that he loves her, threatens Ed again, striking him again, and leaves. Ed calls the detective and reports that George came to him and beat him. After the call, Ed accidentally discovers a severed finger under the pedestal and tries to flush it into the toilet. Detective Derm is back, looking for any clues. He discovers a bloodied shirt, but after Ed's explanation of Sadie's case, he remains satisfied with his answer. The detective finds a diary that Yves kept, where she expressed mixed feelings about her husband - pity, contempt, fear. Ed does not want to give the detective a diary, and after reading it burns it ^[2] .

Jeffrey Costas ( Zach Grenier ), a psychiatrist who leads a victim support group, visits Ed, offering him a sedative. Ed refuses at first, but it becomes more difficult to control himself, and he takes medication. Despite their strong dosage, Ed still cannot fall asleep, suffering from insomnia. Sadie returns to him, worried that he has missed so many classes at college, but they are interrupted by a knock on the door: Susie came to find out if Eve had returned home. Ed prevents Susie from entering the house, and when she does notice Sadie, Ed explains to her that this is just his student, whom he helps with the assignment. After Ed escorts Susie, Sadie says that she admires him. All this resembles a failed date, which Ed abruptly breaks off. Sadie leaves.

Detective Derm over the phone tells Ed that his wife’s body has been discovered. Depressed, he wants to talk to Jeffrey Costas. They discuss how these sad events can affect Ed. Kostas convinces him to speak with the police and is ready to do it on his behalf. However, the police assure Costas that no body was found. This leads to the fact that the detective and the psychiatrist bring charges against Ed. Ed is still raving, he has hallucinations that make him plead guilty to killing Eve. George, previously arrested for assaulting Ed, returns to his house to avenge Eve. Ed watches over George in the basement and kills him. A detective arriving sees Ed with a knife and bloodied hands. The bathroom fills with blood, and Ed sees his wife, healthy and unharmed, playing the piano.

• Jeff Daniels - Ed Saxon
• Molly Price - Susie
• Gil Bellows - Detective Derm
• Emily Bergl - Sadie
• Julian McMahon - George
• Zach Grenier - Jeffrey Costas
• Ben Shankman - Officer Stuart
• Michelle Held - Mrs. Mastrioni

• Film slogan - “The nightmare begins when you open your eyes”
• The shooting took place in the state of Michigan , USA
• The foreign film companies Canal + , Forensic Films, Glaski Productions and TVA International worked on the film .
• Jeff Daniels had to go barefoot almost the entire film

Michael Walker, screenwriter and director of the film, was honored at the 2001 International Fantastic Film Festivals in Gerardmer , France and Sweden in 2001 ^[3]

The film received mixed reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website has nearly half of the positive votes ^[4] . “The Chicago Reader” noted that “Walker does an impressive trick of returning to an antiseptic state of strangulation inside a house through a metaphor for Daniels mental state” ^[5]

• “ Premonition (film, 2007) ”

• An Obsessive Dream on the Internet Movie Database
• An Obsessive Dream on Rotten Tomatoes