Opal Dream

Opal Dream ***

I saw "Opal Dream" at one of the smallest theatres in Manhattan, where the seats are rather uncomfortable, the screen is very small, the place seems as if it's being haunted by the ghosts of the actors that used to preform there, and the film is always so scratched up that it looks like the print was just attacked by a mountain lion. I refuse to name names, so I won't get in trouble with anyone, but that is where I saw this film. "Opal Dream" was released in just four theatres throughout the United States during it's opening weekend, and this sorry excuse for a theatre is the only place it was playing in Manhattan. The point I'm trying to make here is that "Opal Dream" was hidden by it's studio. I heard of the title, and read a single review, but before seeing the beginning I had never seen a single frame of this. I never saw a trailer, a commerical, or any type of poster or print advertisement. I was going on a whim. And it's sick to see films like "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" playing throughout the United States in over one thousand screens, and then seeing "Opal Dream" simply in four. This is a delightful and wonderful family film, that will never get the respect it deserves because it can't be found. Shame on you, Strand, for not having faith in one of your works. I enjoyed myself immensely watching this, and hopefully by some bizarre twist of fate you'll be able to find it too.

"Opal Dream" begins with the innocent dancing of a little girl in her backyard. Her name is Kellyanne, and we learn that this innocence and childlike behavior is what is getting her family into trouble. Kellyanne has imaginary friends-two of them-Pobby and Dignan-and she is so convinced that they are real that she's built them a house in the backyard, has them eat dinner with the entire family, talks to them in public, and even buys food for them at the grocery store. Lolipops, to be exact. Lolipops are their favorite. Her parents, Rex and Annie, watch her fearfully, hoping that her obsession with these friends will go away quickly. Her mother even goes through alot of trouble to actually introduce her to some other children. Her brother Ashmol doesn't fail to remind everybody that they aren't real, which gets him and his sister into a lot of shouting matches. Rex is an opal digger, who has his own little hole in the mines where he is obsessed with finding that one gem that could solve any money problem the family has. One day, in order to get Kellyanne to go to a party with her mother alone, Rex pretends that Pobby and Dignan are real and wants to take them out to the opal mines with him and Ashmol. When he comes back at the end of the night, Kellyanne annouces that her friends are not in the truck. Of course she is worried, and demands that her father drive her to the opal mines so that she could have a look. Sadly, roaming the opal mines in the middle of the night is not a good idea, and Rex is accused of "ratting" or trying to sabotage another persons opal mine, and he becomes an outcast in the town. The families luck does not end there, as Annie is fired from her job until the rest of the town cools off, and the absence of Pobby and Dignan seems to make Kellyanne ill with something-only nobody knows what.

I can't exactly see why "Opal Dream" couldn't be released nationwide-I think it could have worked out. It may not have any famous young actors that the kids love these days, and the Australian setting might be a problem too. God forbid families watch some kind of foreign film once in a while-and this one doesn't even have any subtitles! This is a great little gem, and one that has a nice little message. It is about continuing to live out your dreams, no matter how fake they could seem to others. Through Pobby and Dignan, Kellyanne manages to not only teach her father a thing or two about realistic goals, but also most of the town. It is about innocence, and done in a much more clean fashion as oppose to Terry Gilliam's "Tideland." There is just a lot of heart in this piece, some great preformances especially by Sapphire Boyce as Kellyanne, and Christian Byers as Ashmol, a young boy who seems to think he's loads older than he is. It's a great family film that will never see the light of day by the families it aims for. When the movie began I counted the amount of people watching it with me-there was a mother with her two children, two sets of elderly couples, and me. Wow. . . eight people. . . have we lost our minds. . .?