Michel Gondry’s latest surreal opus deals with dreams in much the same way as his previous film, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, dealt with memories – it’s an incredibly inventive, disorientating journey into the subconscious, with overlapping realities.

Mexican dreamboat Gael García Bernal is the confused, creative, unhinged Stephane, who lands himself a dead-end job at a Parisian calendar publisher, and has extremely vivid, hyper-real dreams which shape his life, taking sleepwalking to a new level. His reality is mixed with fantasy; often it’s not clear to him whether he’s awake or asleep, which proves to be particularly disastrous when he’s attempting to get an amorous relationship going with his shy neighbour Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg).

This is perfect cinema fodder for Gondry (who wrote the script himself – his previous two, Eternal Sunshine… and Human Nature were written by Charlie Kaufman). The film is clearly personal: the visionary Gondry once had a dull job at a calendar publisher, and Stephane, like the director, is highly imaginative, almost naively so, impressing the object of his affection with kooky creations such as a one-second time machine, and 3D glasses that enable the wearer to see the world in... 3D. Gondry himself gets to play around with a lot of DIY special effects, as he’s done in some of his most celebrated music videos (for the likes of Björk and The White Stripes), and we get some very charming, pretty moments involving tinfoil, tinsel and eggcups, as well as an awesome animated action sequence featuring a city made out of toilet rolls.

The dysfunctional love story, plagued with mishaps as Stephanie navigates Stephane’s minor mental breakdowns, lacks the emotional punch and earthiness of Eternal Sunshine, and some of this is too zany for its own good. But ultimately it’s sweet, funny and wholly original; it’s one of a kind and a great trip into Gondry’s mind.