In Life Is But A Dream, Beyoncé tries to reveal more than the superstar we think we know and instead show fans who she really is as a woman.

Combining home video footage, most of which was shot by her on her computer, along with scenes of past performances, studio sessions and one sit-down interview, Beyoncé attempts to tell her story.

While flashbacks of her childhood help piece together how she got to where she is now, including the firing of her father as manager, it is when she talks about her husband, Jay-Z and her baby girl, Blue Ivy, both of whom the film was dedicated to, that we feel we’re really getting to know the singer.

Bey talks of the love she shares with the rapper saying “there were no words” to explain how his love made him feel.  In a home video from 2006 you see Beyoncé find a few words to express her feelings for her future husband, who she married two years later: “Every year I fall more in love with you. I want to spend everyday with you.”

But it’s when she starts talking about being pregnant that you begin to relate to the mega star. From finding out at 3:30 am that she was with child after a bout of morning sickness to feeling the baby kick five times and saying she hoped Jay would get a chance to feel it too, you start to feel excited for her.

When she tells the story of her miscarriage, something Jay-Z first revealed in his song “Glory,” which he made only hours after Blue was born and features her cries, Bey doesn’t make eye contact with the camera. As she explains that she had heard the heartbeat only to go back to the doctor a week later and realize it was gone, you can’t help but understand the pressures of being a star. She explains that she wrote the “saddest song she had ever written” the day after finding out. She just had to move on and go back to work.

One of the best moments is after Beyoncé finishes her drop-the-mic pregnancy announcement of “Love On Top” at the MTV Video Music Awards. After leaving the stage she announces to her team of handlers, “I’m free. We’re all free.”

No longer did she have to squeeze into tight costumes, she was free to live her life.

By the end, when you see Beyoncé holding little Blue Ivy, you are happy she shared a little piece of her life with you, but can’t help but feel like you’ve seen enough of the usually private stars personal life. You’re ready for her to go back to living her own crazy world, while you go back to yours.

Her life is but a dream, but it’s better when her life stays a bit of mystery to the rest of us.

- Shannon Carlin, Radio.com