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Verdict: Low-key, but intriguing dilemma of a woman trapped in her dreams, with a surprisingly good performance by Demi Moore.

Details: Rated PG-13 for sexual situations and language. 1 hour, 47 minutes.

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Review: Dreams are the manifestations of our subconscious minds, but some dreams seem so real until we awaken. And even then, how do we know that the waking state is not the dream, rather than the other way around?

Such is the dilemma of Marie (Demi Moore), a widowed mother of two girls, living a picture postcard life in the south of France, toiling now and then as a freelance book reviewer for The New York Times. But when she goes to sleep, she is transported to New York, to an entirely different life as careerist Marty, a high-powered literary agent too busy for romantic commitment. These dreams recur often enough that she is starting to doubt her sanity, not to mention her identity.

"Passion of Mind" is one of those movies you either go along with or fold your arms and reject. If it were just another glossy big studio vehicle for Moore, it would be easy to scoff at and grow impatient with, but there is a delicate, unassuming quality to this independent film from director Alain Berliner (Ma Vie en Rose) that draws us to its heady aura of mystery.

Moore, the highest-paid actress in motion pictures, in a small independent film? Yes, you'll be pleased to learn, there is some justice in show business. If you make two expensive stink bombs, even if you a) shave your head (G.I. Jane) or b) shake your booty (Striptease), you too may be relegated to low-budget projects.

Yet this drop on the Hollywood pecking order may have been a boon for Moore, who gives one of her best, most unmannered performances ever as the two sides of this tortured, disoriented soul.

Further complicating her characters' lives is the sudden arrival of romance on both sides of the Atlantic. In a French marketplace, Marie meets a man named William (Stellan Skarsgard), an amiable author whose book she harshly panned. (Those looking for clues to which is the dream world should note that such an encounter is every critic's nightmare.) He woos her, but she is hesitant, not yet over her husband's death and worried that William could be a mere figment of her overactive mind.

Or is it Aaron (William Fichtner), Marty's meek New York accountant, who announces his interest in her but is wary of her ultimate rejection? Marty/Marie moves toward intimacy, eventually telling her incredulous lovers about her alter ego life, despite warnings by her therapists.

The screenplay by Ron Bass (What Dreams May Come) moves back and forth from Provence to Manhattan, and soon starts to mark time. So we scan the screen for clues -- Doesn't New York look too clean? Why aren't the French ruder? Berliner's pace is slow and methodical, only tipping his hand when he is ready, and even then with withheld information we could not have guessed. Still, the explanation of Marty/Marie's "passion of mind" condition satisfies, as long as you are not expecting a jaw-dropping revelation.

That is an apt description of the whole film -- satisfying, though unexceptional. Nevertheless, you may leave "Passion of Mind" with a new appreciation for Moore's abilities and with a new uneasy feeling about your dreams.

— Hap Erstein, Cox News Service