Strawberry Mansion (2021)

Directed by: Kentucker Audley, Albert Birney | 90 minutes | adventure, drama, comedy, romance | Actors: Kentucker Audley, Penny Fuller, Grace Glowicki, Linas Phillips, Reed Birney, Constance Shulman, Albert Birney, Ephraim Birney, Kenny Brossoie

Do you remember what you dreamed last night? There is a good chance that at most you will remember a few fragments, playing the whole ‘story’ when you are awake is only reserved for a limited number of people. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to be able to record your dreams and watch them back? That possibility exists in ‘Strawberry Mansion’ by Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney. In fact, it is mandatory. Why? The government has established that what you dream about determines how much tax you have to pay. The price tags attached to it seem completely arbitrary. Are you on a tight budget but dreaming about expensive items? Then you’re out of luck…

The year is 2035. James Preble (Kentucker Audley) is a tax inspector. He checks people’s dreams to see if their tax returns are correct. The device used to record dreams has evolved over the past decade. However, there is an old lady, Bella (Penny Fuller), who lives in a remote Victorian house (the house from which the film takes its title) who, quite stubbornly, has not bought any new equipment. She recorded her dreams on VHS tapes. As a result, Bella has not paid taxes for years. It’s James’ job to track down her accumulated dreams and assess what can be achieved.

The contrast between Bella and James couldn’t be greater. James is a dull man, who seems to get little pleasure from life and who takes his job very seriously. There seems to be a gray filter placed over him. However, his dreams are set in a pink environment, in which every object has the same pink color. Bella, on the other hand, literally opens her door and heart to the tax inspector, wears colorful clothes and in the first scene has on a bizarre and intricately technical-looking headgear, with colored and flashing lights as if she were a Christmas tree. It doesn’t take long for Bella’s candor and especially the Bella in her earlier dreams to have an effect on James. A bond forms between young Bella (played by Grace Glowicki) who appears to be aware of James’ presence in the dreams.

Although the scenes alternate between real life and the dream world (both dreams that Bella has already had and dreams that James has now) and confusion lurks, the story is easy to follow. The intention of the filmmakers is not to mislead the viewer, but rather to make them think about the importance of fantasy and the right to keep your thoughts to yourself. Not everything is commonplace. There is such a strong idea in the screenplay that you can almost imagine that after seeing this film, multinationals will investigate whether this is possible to introduce in real life.

What is also striking about this fine film is the production design. Despite the setting being 2035, the world in ‘Strawberry Mansion’ doesn’t look like it does in similar futuristic narratives. Apart from the technical developments surrounding capturing your dreams, many utensils are old-fashioned or at least low-budget. That has an alienating effect, but it works great. The special effects also contribute to this.

‘Strawberry Mansion’ is a movie with its heart in the right place. Creativity explodes. Not all parts of the scenario are equally well developed, but the visual aspect and the pleasant characters make up for a lot.