I believe we all would like love to find us, love's supposed to be spontaneous. In fact, real love cannot be planned nor forced. Why would a story like "Waking" wouldn't like any love believer? Well, I didn't! It's precisely considering love like a "dream state", like being high on an alternate reality, what's hindering almost everyone from finding real love. Real love occurs in real life! Believing on stories like Waking makes us expectant: "love will find us". Being expectant for love to find us equals seeking in every person the magical sign he/she is our "soul mate", the "one". Of course, every one of us has prejudices about love, about how that soul mate should be. This means not everyone fits the mental script of our ideal love story, so Nadia couldn't have been played by an ugly old lady.
This film is the perfect example of the kind of stuff people should not learn from Hollywood. I know they just reflect what's on our collective unconscious, but they help reinforce those concepts about love and relationships. So how many people keep expecting love to find them, even after being engaged with a real person? How many after being married? What is mainly wrong in the story is not that Ben falls in love with the girl in the park (or in his dreams) while engaged with Amy, but the fact he is in a relationship with someone he doesn't love profoundly. Was he with Amy because he was interested in inheriting her father's practice? Did he have other motives other than love for her? That's just a perfect scenario for disaster and Amy could've notice it on Ben's lack of enthusiasm.
The film reminded me of "Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind" but inverted. Instead of being two lovers who defend their love against each other's selfishness, Waking is the story of a man without the courage to tell his girlfriend he's not in love with her (was he ever?), he's just keeping a relationship for economic interests and then he follows a dream girl without any consideration for his fiancée, his father in law and his career. How many men are out there ready to leave everything behind for a dream girl? Ben character is pathetic! So, no, I didn't like the film. I just couldn't dive into the story; I couldn't see myself being Ben, I couldn't feel empathy for Amy or Nadia. Why would a nice girl like Nadia play such vulnerable girl? Too many details just don't fit.
This film is the perfect example of the kind of stuff people should not learn from Hollywood. I know they just reflect what's on our collective unconscious, but they help reinforce those concepts about love and relationships. So how many people keep expecting love to find them, even after being engaged with a real person? How many after being married? What is mainly wrong in the story is not that Ben falls in love with the girl in the park (or in his dreams) while engaged with Amy, but the fact he is in a relationship with someone he doesn't love profoundly. Was he with Amy because he was interested in inheriting her father's practice? Did he have other motives other than love for her? That's just a perfect scenario for disaster and Amy could've notice it on Ben's lack of enthusiasm.
The film reminded me of "Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind" but inverted. Instead of being two lovers who defend their love against each other's selfishness, Waking is the story of a man without the courage to tell his girlfriend he's not in love with her (was he ever?), he's just keeping a relationship for economic interests and then he follows a dream girl without any consideration for his fiancée, his father in law and his career. How many men are out there ready to leave everything behind for a dream girl? Ben character is pathetic! So, no, I didn't like the film. I just couldn't dive into the story; I couldn't see myself being Ben, I couldn't feel empathy for Amy or Nadia. Why would a nice girl like Nadia play such vulnerable girl? Too many details just don't fit.