Absolutely brilliant

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

DREAMS OF A LIFE is a feature length 2011 docu-drama by filmmaker Carol Morley that tells the true story of Joyce Carol Vincent, a woman who died in her flat in London around 2003 and wasn't found until more than three years later. The story itself is a great one, one of the most tragic tales you could imagine and a true reflection on the careless nature of modern society, but DREAMS OF A LIFE drops the ball along the way.Morley messes up by focusing way too much on recreating Vincent's brief life as a celebration instead of really getting to the heart of the manner of her death. After all, it's the unusual circumstances surrounding the death that makes this such a good story, but we learn next to nothing about it. Just how could somebody die in the heart of a heaving metropolis, with the TV on no less, and nobody realise for three years? Instead, there are endless bite-sized interviews with friends who knew here, and a good half an hour of excruciating singing as Morley explores Vincent's passion for music. All of this needed to be jettisoned and replaced with an investigative journalist doing a voice-over and exploring the mysteries that remain unsolved to date.

After reading the description of this film I looked forward to a well delivered film about the life and times of a woman who was eventually found dead in her apartment. Yes, the premise of finding out who she was and the life she had lived seemed like it would have provided an interesting journey for the viewers. Adding to the fact that not a single person had shown interest in her life when it ended and then not being found until 3 years later as a skeleton on a couch, the TV still running - made this seem like it may be interesting.However, I am disappointed to say that this film just doesn't have what a decent documentary needs. It contains barely any real evidence of the woman's life, and she is only seen in a few photographs at one point in the film. The story relies on some of her old acquaintances, who most obviously were not close friends with her. We are made to sit through endless assumptions and vague memories shot with a typical interview type backdrop throughout the entire film. Some of them just seem to just be there to get some screen time of their own and the film makers have been desperate enough to use basically anyone with any kind of connection to the victim. To make this 'documentary' a complete failure is the reliance on dramatization. It's a terrible attempt at story telling, the acting is poor and to tread even more dirt into this attempt at documentary making the film makers have recreated the woman's apartment, recreated the police crew packing up the apartment in full chemical suits.They also try to create a 'What if' scenarios by including a 'What if she was murdered?' theme to try and add more to it.The movie feels empty and poorly conceived. There is just not enough real footage and real evidence to even hold together 30 minutes let alone 1.5 hours.If you like your documentaries filled with acted dramatization, poor acting, film sets and montages created because they have no real footage of the events and a group of interviewees that were never close enough to the woman to help her in her times of need. Then this is your kind of movie.

I like the comments from another reviewer, about how ms Vincent didn't fit in easily, neither the Black, nor Asian community and encountering racism from her white boyfriend Martin's parents. I was fascinated to watch this having lived in Wood Green myself during the early nineties and I remember vividly during the course of my training in one of the caring professions visiting a client in the very same block of flats where Joyce died. Its a strange building, a walkway above a car park, sitting on top of a shopping centre and very anonymous. No one passing by and, from Wood Green High street, you would never imagine there are homes above this shopping centre. Apparently the housing association have reviewed their procedures after Joyce was three years in arrears with her rent. Knowing how inept and useless many big organisations are its easy to see how someone in social housing could get into big rent arrears. Someone in the organisation has to notice, then they have to consult a manager, then they have to have a meeting, then they have to refer it to a committee, then there's another meeting, then they have to check with the social services... Still, there must have been a power cut at some stage in the three years. Who was paying the electricity bills if the TV was still on? Why wasn't the electricity cut off? Things don't add up. If Joyce had contact with professionals dealing with domestic violence, there must be case records. Were the police ever called to an incident? Did Joyce use aliases? I ve hear a couple of theories, one is this whole film is an elaborate hoax. The other is she was murdered by someone with a key to her flat and the murderer went to great lengths to cover their tracks. The housing association could answer some of these questions, such as confirming there really was a Joyce Vincent housed by them. Also, many housing associations will only issue one set of keys to tenants, special keys which you cannot copy at a regular locksmiths. Someone needs to check this story out. It would not be the first time a national newspaper like The Sun was duped by a hoax. I m not saying it IS a hoax, just that it might be... Finally, I saw this at the Odeon and while I encourage anyone to watch it, you won t lose anything by waiting for the DVD. Cinema tickets can be pricey these days and Dreams of a Life is perfectly good watched on the small screen.

I'm sure unnoticed deaths are far more common than we might assume. In this case, owing to the relative youth of the deceased and the length of time it took to discover her, there remain many unanswered questions. The young woman (38) was of Indian Asian/Grenadian extraction, having lost her mother at age 11 (when her mother was 41),and had been raised with 'aspirations' without having access to the routes that would accomplish what are likely to have been her parents' expectations. It's a very sad tale, sadder that her oldest friend was clearly still carrying a light for her. So, there she was, never really fitting in, not prepared to enter the 'black ghetto', not really being part of the Asian community and living on the margins of the white world - amongst all the other misfits. I suspect there was much that she did not understand and much that she would not know how to deal with as a result. She evidently tried to create an image that would act as a thin ediface of self-esteem whilst she tried to navigate her way through life. So sad that this may have undermined her health and brought about an untimely and unnoticed end. Full marks to Carol Morley in piecing the evidence together although this film doesn't quite keep your attention all through. Oddly, I was tempted to close my eyes a couple of times and would have dozed off if it had been on TV - quite ironic really!