Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

HarlowMGM DREAMING OF Joseph LEES is one of the most romantic pictures of recent years but it is seriously marred by a pretentious streak, improbable character actions, and a artsy ambiguous ending that is a cheat. Samantha Morton gives an excellent performance but Eva is such an incredibly plain heroine that it's odd why two quite handsome (one of them, Rupert, extraordinarily handsome) men would be obsessed with this little church mouse.Set in 1958 rural England, Eva has long mooned over a distant cousin, Joseph Lees, who unlike the rest of her relatives has gone off to see the world and is interested in "books and things". Eva is pursued by a local pig farmer Harry who longs to be a prizefighter and longs to bed Eva. Having not hear anything about Joseph in years, Eva decides to slide into a relationship with the persistent Harry, only to have Joseph suddenly reappear and for the dark side of Harry's obsession to be revealed.I found the screenwriter's sympathy with Harry downright offensive given his truly dangerous personality. When Eva, upset with his barking dogs, tells him to "get rid of them", he does - he shoots them!! Later he goes and self-mutilates himself ( thinking perhaps Eva's emotional tie to Joseph was sympathy based?) - this is some scary sh*t and yet the screenwriter treats it all like, poor thing he really loves her and its tearing him apart. I realize this is set in the late 1950's (though you would never know it from some of the clothes and hairstyles) but even then women had more options that just feeling obligated for life to the person who deflowered them. That everybody was so sympathetic to Harry for all the emotional BS he put Eva through was just bizarre to me. The ending leaves it up in the air what will be Eva's final decision - Harry or Joseph - it's an artsy twist that the producers should have demanded be rewritten. There is a slight hint she will go with Joseph (her sister's smile) but it's certainly not clear what her final decision will be. Had the producers brought in someone to rewrite the script they may have had themselves a major hit instead of what it is, a obscure little film not seen by many and one of the very few from recent years that has never been released on DVD.The performances are excellent though - the young actress playing the little sister is really good and the ever dashing Rupert Graves proves once again he is one of the best actors in films today. But let's face it - if a woman has to choose between Rupert Graves or somebody else, unless that woman is mentally unbalanced herself, "somebody else" hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell.

Katherine Howard I thought this was an exceptionally well-directed, superbly-acted movie with a winding (albeit erotic!) plot . . . but a terrible, "didn't see it coming" end. The end was abrupt and totally out of place. At the very least, the "cuckoo" suggested in the title should've died off and the story should've then ended with Eva and her lover boy staring off into the sunset togetherWithout yielding spoilers, I will also say pish posh to all the hogwash about how it should have been an easy choice for her to abandon her "dreamer" boy and stay with the "one that loved her." The one that loved her did not love her, folks--he was a sick, depraved, mentally-ill soul who could not love properly, treat her properly, nor ever perceive her properly. He could not even relate properly to the real world let alone truly "love" Eva. He was a twisted, childish narcissist incapable of rendering her a suitable existence--unlike his dashing and mentally-sound rival. I wouldn't have even done for Harry what she did after the crazed stunt he pulled toward the movie's end--I would have left him to the State and not allowed him to manipulate me through his own self-destructive threats or actions like he did Eva. And then I would have happily sailed off with Joseph without batting an eye. Somehow in the movie she was made to bear the guilt and responsibility of every errant thought, motive, or action of Harry, and I don't think that was fair or deserving.Despite the "too many unanswered questions" ending, the movie--though a bit predictable--draws one in and holds him to the end with an eerie blend of nostalgia, sweet sentamentalism, erotic interest, and blimey--that strange, unusual, and tentacular "twist" so prevalent in English films (where they almost twist away from the norm or conventional a bit . . . but then, is that just the English?) The film is definitely worth its time.

joyincmajor Out of curiosity, I picked up this movie at a video store, and was very pleasantly surprised. Samantha Morton is exquisite and believeable as Eva, a quiet girl who harbors a deep love for Joseph Lees, a geologist and distant relative.I had never heard of Rupert Graves before but he too was tremendous as a lonely man with a personal sorrow.The supporting cast was top-notch. This is a movie that I have seen several times and will certainly rent it again in the future. It is unforgettable.

sass_brown I'll be glad to speak to the reasons why "Dreaming of Joseph Lees" only scored an average of 4...it's maddeningly vague (those with a taste for pretentious "art cinema" may mistake this for lyricism), melodramatic, murky (both in terms of plot and lighting), and contains a wholly unsympathetic cast of characters. Who is worse: the man-child who throws tantrums and even mutilates himself to keep his woman, or the woman who stays with him? This film has all the markers of a tragedy (the accident; the woman caught between duty and love; the close-ups of Morton's prettily-anguished face) except the most important one -- it fails to make us care.