A ‘The White Lotus’ Star Takes Over Henry Golding’s Dreams in ‘Daniela Forever’ Trailer [Exclusive]

Dreams have a lot of power to affect us even after we wake up, and Henry Golding is about to experience that power on a much greater level. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024, Daniela Forever features the Crazy Rich Asians star as a heartbroken man named Nicolas, still reeling from the tragic death of his girlfriend, the titular Daniela (Beatrice Grannò). To recover from the shocking loss, he starts undergoing a clinical trial allowing him to control his dreams and, in turn, bring Daniela back… sort of. Collider can exclusively share the official trailer that shows how the lucid dreams bring airy back into his life, but it starts becoming a problem as he becomes obsessed with the fantasy just beyond the waking world.

The footage opens with vivid and colorful wide-screen shots of Daniela amid elated moments with Nicolas while a cavalcade of voices calls her name. Soon after, reality sets in, and Nicolas jolts awake on his couch, the lower picture quality, duller palette, and smaller field of view reflecting his current reality. During every waking minute, he is haunted by the death of Daniela, even if he puts on a brave face for everyone around him. When he takes an experimental recent Belgian drug for lucid dreaming and goes to sleep, however, it’s as if a different film begins playing. Trippy, energetic visuals overtake the melancholy as Nicolas lives out his desires with a fantasy Daniela, controlling every single moment with her, from haunted house tours to the wedding they never had, to make everything perfect. The joy he experiences makes it all the more painful when, contrary to the title, he’s faced with the harsh truth that he can’t stay in his dreams with the love of his life forever, nor are those dreams as perfect as they seem.

Daniela Forever is teased as a roller-coaster of emotion, exploring Nicolas and Daniela’s relationship and the former’s unhealthy emotional dependency on the latter. In his director’s statement, the film’s Oscar-nominated writer-director, Nacho Vigalondo, described it as an exploration of “grief, pain, loneliness, the entrance into the second half of our lives, and all the inevitability that awaits us there,” that also leaves room for surprises and a debatably elated ending. There was also a lot of growth involved in its making. He mused about the irony of turning dreams, a storytelling mechanic he hated as a kid despite its uses, into the core of his recent project. Regarding technique, it involved embracing a mix of elderly and recent technology that Viagalondo has used throughout his career to capture the change in look in Nicolas’s reality. He explained:

“I always impose upon myself to direct every movie as if it were the last one, as a way to maintain honesty over the mundane fears imposed by the industry (and I guess it’s cool to turn a growing fear into a creative method). Having said that, I feel so blessed we were able to combine standard cameras with the old-school Betamax SP technology that I used when I was making short films in high school. Embracing the past, and the same limitations the crew faced when we started shooting together in the previous century, has been a true adventure and a chance to check how much we’ve actually grown through the years. I’d love to make one hundred more movies, but so far, I’m so happy this testament exists.”

‘Daniela Forever’ Resonated With Critics at TIFF

Golding and Grannò each bring impressive resumes to the table for Daniela Forever. The former is in the middle of a busy year, most recently starring in Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 and Another Simple Favor, with an upcoming role in The Old Guard 2. Grannò, meanwhile, burst onto the international scene with her turn in The White Lotus Season 2, though her last role came in the animated series Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. Joining the pair are Aura Garrido, Nathalie Poza, and Rubén Ochandiano.

Following its TIFF premiere, critics had high praise for Vigalondo’s feature. Daniela Forever currently holds a powerful 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with plenty of love for its themes and cast. Collider’s Tania Hussain gave the film a 5/10 in her review, but, despite its faults, she hailed it as “an emotional portrait of grief and obsession” and added that “Vigalondo’s use of lucid dreaming to examine the intersection of memory and love is downright inventive.” Vigalondo, to this point, has been best known for films like Colossal and Timecrimes, as well as for directing episodes of Our Flag Means Death, but his latest, surreal exploration of grief looks to be one of his unique and experimental yet.

Well Go USA Entertainment will bring Daniela Forever to select theaters on July 11 and digital platforms on July 22. It’s one of several films the company has in the pipeline alongside the kidnapping thriller Barron’s Cove, starring Garrett Hedlund, Stephen Lang, and more. Check out the exclusive trailer in the player above.

Daniela Forever

Release Date

September 5, 2024

Runtime

113 Minutes

Producers

Gustavo Ferrada, Benoît Roland, Nahikari Ipiña