Audrey (Agnes Bruckner) and Calista (Kelli Garner) live in a remote desert trailer park, presumably somewhere in Nevada or California.  Recent high-school graduates, they are best friends despite their vast differences.  Audrey is a poet at heart, a brilliant thinker and an introvert.  Calista is a buoyant extravert, slightly ditzy and obsessed with glamour.  She wants to be the next Miss America.  To accomplish this, she intends to use her unquestionable beauty and her secret weapon... Multiple Sclerosis -- "the judges are sure to vote for the sick girl".

Audrey's father (John Corbett) is also very ill.  He is a depressed alcoholic, mourning the loss of his wife, Audrey's mother.  He cannot leave the trailer park without suffering a debilitating panic attack.  Mookie (Justin Long) is a young man who moves into the trailer park with his mother (Gina Gershon).  he is rehabbing his knee while waiting to attend university on a basketball scholarship.  Needless to say, he becomes the object of desire for the two girls... but Calista saw him first and has "dibs".

Calista and Mookie start to fall for each other while Audrey longs from a distance.  She is happy for her terminal friend... but she is falling in love with Mookie too.  The tension leads to a somewhat inevitable conclusion.

I really appreciated the ability of director Jason Matzner to keep the languid pace of the film while never allowing me to drift into boredom.  Although I will admit that the casting of Bruckner and Garner had a lot to do with that.  It is rather impossible to look away when they are on screen together.  They are relentlessly gorgeous young women and two of the finest young actresses in a very strong generation.

The film only stumbles badly on two occasions... both when Justin Long's Mookie delivers corny basketball metaphors.  I am not entirely sure whether the ludicrous comparisons are meant to be serious or not... either way, I laughed out loud at the poorly constructed lines.

For the most part, however, the film is consistently intriguing.  I really loved the poetic interludes as Audrey narrates the proceedings with one of her iambic observations.  Each of the characters, with the possible exception of Mookie, is written and performed with real depth.  The cinematography and scenery is mesmerizing.  The film manages to make a deserted trailer park look like heaven... which, of course, is quite impossible.  Then again, most trailer parks don't have two single beauties that look like Bruckner and Garner either.

It may not be a truly realistic portrait -- "Dreamland" plays more like a fable about destiny, loyalty and reality versus dreams of something better.  I think this film will play well to most romantics under the age of 35.  Take a shot with this film if you can find it on DVD.  You will be witness to a thoughtful, original tale, and two of the most engaging young talents in movies today.