A director's looming nightmare.

"The roof is on fire?"

“Dream House”
Rated PG-13
Universal/Morgan Creek
Now in Wide Release
1.5 out of 4 Stars

By BLAKE GOBLE

How did this happen to Jim Sheridan?

The Irish auteur has six Oscar nominations to his credit, thanks to past masterworks like “My Left Foot,” “In the Name of the Father” and “In America”. Now, after directing hip-hop huckster 50 Cent in “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”, and half-assedly helming the boilerplate thriller “Dream House,” it’s official: Sheridan is phoning it in for a pay-day. Joining other tainted greats like Roland Jaffe (“Captivity” after “The Killing Fields”), John Singleton (“Abduction” after “Boyz n’ the Hood”) and Alan Parker (“The Life of David Gale” after “Mississippi Burning”), Sheridan has fallen from grace with a hokey, awkward thriller. “Dream House” admittedly, looks great in pedigree. A lauded director, leading an all-star cast in a seemingly unique premise ought to be enough to intrigue.

Daniel Craig (“Casino Royale”) is Will, a successful publisher and family man who learns that there may have been murders committed within his idyllic home. The kick? Will may have committed these crimes, and his grasp of reality is quickly weakening.

This sounds intriguing enough. The problem is that Sheridan doesn’t have passion for the material, his characters or a need to satisfyingly answer questions. “Dream House” is lazy. The pace is slow, without building real question or a desire to answer Will’s problems. The actors - and there are some good ones in this (“The Constant Garnder’s Rachel Weisz as Will’s wife, and “21 Grams’” Naomi Watts as a suspicious neighbor) – just don’t seem to be trying. Ultimately, logic, care and patience are not part of the “Dream.” Pensive acting and plodding narrative make the accurately labeled “Dream House” capable of putting one to sleep. Once secrets are revealed, it just doesn’t matter. The same could be said of Sheridan’s once exciting, earthy directing. Maybe this isn’t entirely his fault, but one could easily have dreamed of more.