Taglines: A dreamer who couldn’t sleep. An author who couldn’t write. A friend who couldn’t help but help.
Dream for an Insomniac movie storyline. Frankie (Ione Skye) works at her uncle Leo’s Cafe Blue Eyes in San Francisco (named in honor of family friend Frank Sinatra), and is hoping to meet her ideal lover, ideally one with blue eyes like Sinatra, while going to auditions with her friend Allison (Jennifer Aniston). Frankie suffers from insomnia, and has not slept through the night since childhood, when her parents were killed in a car accident. She spends most of her time at night reading.
Writer David Shrader (Mackenzie Astin), takes a job at the cafe, and Frankie falls in love with him, while he attempts to cure her insomnia, she reads his writings, and the two take turns reciting philosophical quotes and guessing their source. The film is shot in black and white until Frankie sees David, when the film switches to color and David’s eyes are revealed as blue. David breaks Frankie’s heart when she finds out that he is engaged to a lawyer, Molly (Leslie Stevens), but he eventually chooses Frankie over his fiance, and visits her in Los Angeles, where she has joined Allison, who is exploring an acting career.
Dream for an Insomniac is a 1996 romantic comedy movie written and directed by Tiffanie DeBartolo. It stars Ione Skye, Jennifer Aniston, Mackenzie Astin, Michael Landes, Robert Kelker-Kelly, Seymour Cassel, Sean Blackman, Leslie Stevens and Robert Kelker-Kelly.
Film Review for Dream for an Insomniac
It’s not an encouraging sign when a movie whose center of gravity is a San Francisco coffeehouse called the Cafe Blue Eyes plays Frank Sinatra Jr. on the soundtrack instead of the real thing. And that’s not the only element that rings false in ”Dream for an Insomniac,” the much-too-cute feature film debut of Tiffanie DeBartolo, which opens today at the Criterion.
This portrait of a morose intellectual caffeine addict named Frankie (Ione Skye), who works in her uncle’s bohemian establishment and hankers for a dream lover who must meet impossibly high standards of looks and intelligence, is seriously miscast. Ms. Skye’s Frankie happens to be almost a dead ringer for Monica Lewinsky. As she ruminates about life and love with her best friend, Allison (Jennifer Aniston), Ms. Skye whines in a Valley Girl drawl that makes her sound vapid instead of brooding and stubbornly idealistic.
When Mr. Right miraculously appears in the form of David Shrader (Mackenzie Astin), an intense young man who takes a job in the cafe, the discrepancy between the screenplay’s witty banter, in which the two toss quotes from Kierkegaard at each other, and Frankie’s airheaded delivery is almost painful.
”Dream for an Insomniac” is really a self-conscious modern sitcom that with its San Francisco setting suggests a pale shadow of Armistead Maupin’s ”Tales From the City.” One of its contrived subplots involves the dilemma of Rob (Michael Landes), the gay son of Leo (Seymour Cassel), the gruff but kindly Italian-American owner of the Cafe Blue Eyes. Rob, who lives with a boyfriend, enlists Allison to be his collaborator in a transparently trumped-up romance intended to convince Dad that he is straight.
After Allison leaves town with Frankie to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles, Rob has second thoughts and decides to come out to his father. How will Dad react? And will David, who is engaged to a dippy lawyer named Molly (Leslie Stevens), realize that Frankie is his one true love and follow her to Los Angeles? You don’t have to wait for the next episode to find out.
Dream for an Insomniac (1998)
Directed by: Tiffanie DeBartolo
Starring: Ione Skye, Jennifer Aniston, Mackenzie Astin, Michael Landes, Robert Kelker-Kelly, Seymour Cassel, Sean Blackman, Leslie Stevens, Robert Kelker-Kelly
Screenplay by: Tiffanie DeBartolo
Production Design by: Gary T. New
Cinematography by: Guillermo Navarro
Film Editing by: Thomas Fries, Phyllis Housen
Costume Design by: Charles Winston
Set Decoration by: Laurie Scott
Art Direction by: John P. Jockinsen
Music by: Michael Andreas
MPAA Rating: N for language.
Distributed by: Avalanche Releasing
Release Date: June 19, 1998
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