The Science of Sleep is not, as its title might suggest, about science. It’s about emotions: the nostalgia for childhood, the confusion of dreams and the frustration of love. It’s also really, really weird.

The Science of Sleep is French director Michel Gondry’s third feature film, but it’s the first based on a script he wrote himself. He originally became known for directing trippy music videos for artists like Bjork and the White Stripes that featured clever camera tricks, loopy plotlines, and kitschy stop-motion sequences. The Science of Sleep has all those things, as well as some original acting performances and hilarious dialogue in French, English and Spanish.

Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También, The Motorcycle Diaries) plays Stéphane, a creative young man returning from Mexico to his childhood home in France to take a job at a calendar company. The dullness of his working world is a stark contrast to the vivid, surreal universe of Stéphane’s dreams, where water is made of cellophane and Stéphane hosts his own variety show.

As the movie goes on, it becomes increasingly difficult for Stéphane – and the viewer – to separate his dreams from reality. This complicates Stéphane’s romantic pursuit of the artsy girl next door, Stéphanie, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg (21 Grams): he’s often not sure if he’s interacting with the real Stéphanie, and she’s never sure whether he’s charmingly eccentric or flat-out insane.

The whole thing has a sort of delirious, anything-is-possible vibe similar to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The dream sequences are lo-fi – all-cardboard cars, claymation creatures and Bernal in a bear suit – but visually stimulating. Even when you have no idea what’s actually happening onscreen, the set-pieces, visual gags and snappy writing keeps you entertained.

It’s too bad Gondry’s filmic inventiveness isn’t reflected in the plot: the central love story feels forced and dull. Bernal does an admirable job playing the role of an adult who hasn’t grown up – usually adorable, sometimes creepy – and Gainsbourg does alright playing his down-to-earth foil, but their scenes together are more awkward than effervescent. Granted, some parts are supposed to be awkward, but moments that should be transcendent – when the two artists are engaged in the act of creation – end up cliché or just off-kilter.

That might be because it gets hard to sympathize with Stéphane, who is again and again presented with chances to show some maturity and growth in character but ends up staying static, childish and often insufferable. We’re left thinking that he would benefit more from steady appointments with a therapist than from a steady relationship with Stéphanie.

But gripes about character and story end up being relatively minor, because The Science of Sleep succeeds on a visceral level. The jokes are laugh-out-loud funny, the sets are unforgettable, and Gondry nails the bewildering, beautiful and intensely emotional nature of dreams. The Science of Sleep is more art than science, and that’s why it’s great.