What Dreams May Come (Vincent Ward, 1998)
Before I started to watch this, I had basically no idea what it was even about or what to even expect. I’ve heard some good things about it, so I at least expected it to be somewhat good; boy was I surprised after watching it tonight though. Visually this movie is almost perfect; I can’t really say that it’s completely perfect because there were some scenes where it looked fake. The main scene I’m thinking of when I mention this is when Chris, Albert, and the tracker are standing at the gates of hell; at first it looked so amazing, but then the longer into the scene it got the more it looked fake. I think it first started to really show in the scene was when it was at close-up of their heads. That’s really the only scene, while they’re in either heaven or hell, which the photography didn’t completely blow me away. The best visual in the movie was when Chris first got to his heaven, where everything was like a painting. I really think that’s the only way to actually describe this movie; it’s not a movie, it’s a painting.
I actually tend to not like love stories that much, so I was pretty surprised at how much I ended up liking this. It was just such a touching story; I also really love when a lot of the movie is told through flashbacks. It really just makes the movie even better when it does that, because it just adds a certain amount of charm to the story. The ending just really seemed to get to me, even if it was a sort of predictable ending, just like how most love story endings would. The whole movie just really messed with my mind; I’m going to have to watch it again to fully understand it. I got lost a few times through the flashbacks, but I still got most of it.
You know, Robin Williams never really seemed to stand out as an actor to me; I mean I’ve always liked him, but I never really thought too much about him. I’ve seen him in so many things though, and he’s been good in all of them, but none of those roles stood out to me. Most actors seem to have that one role that just really makes them stand out; like Samuel L. Jackson has Jules Winnfield or Heath Ledger has The Joker, and I think this role is Robin Williams stand out role, for me at least. Cube Gooding Jr. was also very good in this, maybe not as great as Robin Williams, but the movie focused on Williams and not Gooding Jr. Max Von Sydow was good in this as well; even though I didn’t really know how well he could act until now, because the only other movie I’ve seen him in is Rush Hour 3; which I don’t think really showed his acting skills off to well.
Overall this movie was a visual feast, with a great love story to go along with it. Anyone who hasn’t got the pleasure of seeing this yet should get to it sometime soon; this is just a movie that I think you have to see to understand. This is among the most underrated movies I’ve ever seen though; I like never hear any talk about it or anything, yet it’s just so great. I actually didn’t even know about it until a couple of months ago, but you know what’s funny; ever since I first heard it mentioned I started seeing it at Best Buy all the time. I’m glad that I finally got a chance to see this though; this is just that one movie that I think you have to see at least once.
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