Often meaningful cinematic experience requires us to keep the cynic in us at bay in order to believe in the virtual world unfolding

in front of us or in Coleridges word it calls for willing suspension of disbelief. However, the science of sleep belongs to the rare category of cinema that constantly alerts the audience to the unreal nature of its content and medium. The title is a misnomer for it teases us into associating it with sci-fi, a genre of cinema that Hollywood is famous for doling out with monotonous regularity. Science fiction religiously attempts to create an incredulous world paradoxically accompanied by sustained explanations and justifications to make it look credulous. No such attempts can be detected in scs where the boundaries between the real and unreal in the life of the main protagonist blurs to the extent of making the narrative extremely arcane to say the least. The movie opens with a glimpse into the dream world of stephan, around whom the plot revolves . A bit of Freudian jargon about dreams laced with comic overtones spoken with exaggerated body movements marks the opening scene of the movie which in a way sets the tone of what is to follow. Unfortunately for Stephan his real world is lot less interesting than his dream world where he finds himself having to deal with a tedious job, imposing mother and confused feelings for his pretty and artistic neighbour Stephanie. As reality starts tightening its noose around his neck, stifling his soul his dreams start making amends by allowing to live out his fantasies, to express the unexpressable. Problems arise when stephans distorted sense of reality makes him completely inept to distinguish between his dream world and real world which in turn makes its impossible for the viewers to tell for sure if they are allowed a glimpse into stehans dreams or they are witnessing playing out of events in his real life. Clarity is not a quality that this movie aspires to achieve. We can never be sure if he confesses his love to Stephanie or if his creative design for the calendar gets accepted. But that is where the appeal of the movie lies, in recognizing the limits of how much can be known about the reality around us. Almost all the characters play their parts well, contributing their bit towards the artistic whole but gael Garcia barnel as Stephan deserves special mention. he slides effortlessly from downplaying his character to making it look loud and over the top. Shy and vulnerable Stephan turns into a boisterous tv show host in the dream world without any residues of his character in real life. Another feather in this movies hat is its brilliant cinematography which assists the actors in creating a world of unrealistic reality. To sum up this movie is a felicitous attempt at addressing the serious question of nature of reality around us without taking itself too seriously. It partly succeeds.