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What Dreams May Come
Despite overly melodramatic direction, 1998's What Dreams May Come is an imaginative and visually arresting take on some unsavory and squirm-worthy subject matter that takes a dark and emotionally charged journey to a satisfactory, if logic-defying finale.
Robin Williams plays Chris Nielsen, a doctor, husband, and father of two whose children are killed in an accident. Four years later, Chris also dies in an accident. Chris finds himself transported into a concept of heaven that's like a visual painting that he embraces until he receives word that his wife (Annabella Sciorra) has committed suicide, but she is not coming to heaven, she has gone to hell and Chris makes the fatalistic decision to journey to hell to get his wife back.
Based on a novel by Richard Matheson, Ronald Bass' screenplay is unapologetic in its in your face confrontation on subjects like death, dying, heaven, hell, eternal life, and most disturbing, the concept of suicide sending someone to hell instead of heaven. An explanation for this radical concept is provided, but it was weak and did not justify this woman going to hell after what she had been through. The story promises Chris that he will be reunited with his children and a journey to hell might lead him back to his wife, but she won't know who he is. Why have him reunite with his kids and deprive him of his wife? Though the scene where Chris finds his wife and tries to get through to her is one of the movie's most powerful moments.
Director Vincent Ward overpowers some of the ugliness of the story through some extraordinary visuals that actually give the after life appeal. Chris' initial arrival in Heaven is eye popping with colors that look like an artists' palette and the paint takes on three dimensions as the ground Chris walks on appears to be paint. And as breathtaking as Ward's vision of heaven is, his vision of hell reaches the opposite side of the spectrum, bringing a proper darkness and ugliness to hell, without devils and pitchforks and fire...there's an absolutely repellent moment where Chris must navigate through a sea of human heads that defies description. After this hellacious journey, the convenient ending is a bit of a cheat.
Robin Williams hits all the right notes as the tortured Chris and Cuba Gooding Jr. and Max Von Sydow are also effective as Chris' guides through heaven and hell. And though I have always found her overrated as an actress, I have never enjoyed Sciorra more as the luminous and lost Annie. The film also scores in the areas of production design, cinematography, film editing, and sound. It takes a minute to get going and the ending is a little convenient, but most of this is imaginative and a little creepy.
Despite overly melodramatic direction, 1998's What Dreams May Come is an imaginative and visually arresting take on some unsavory and squirm-worthy subject matter that takes a dark and emotionally charged journey to a satisfactory, if logic-defying finale.
Robin Williams plays Chris Nielsen, a doctor, husband, and father of two whose children are killed in an accident. Four years later, Chris also dies in an accident. Chris finds himself transported into a concept of heaven that's like a visual painting that he embraces until he receives word that his wife (Annabella Sciorra) has committed suicide, but she is not coming to heaven, she has gone to hell and Chris makes the fatalistic decision to journey to hell to get his wife back.
Based on a novel by Richard Matheson, Ronald Bass' screenplay is unapologetic in its in your face confrontation on subjects like death, dying, heaven, hell, eternal life, and most disturbing, the concept of suicide sending someone to hell instead of heaven. An explanation for this radical concept is provided, but it was weak and did not justify this woman going to hell after what she had been through. The story promises Chris that he will be reunited with his children and a journey to hell might lead him back to his wife, but she won't know who he is. Why have him reunite with his kids and deprive him of his wife? Though the scene where Chris finds his wife and tries to get through to her is one of the movie's most powerful moments.
Director Vincent Ward overpowers some of the ugliness of the story through some extraordinary visuals that actually give the after life appeal. Chris' initial arrival in Heaven is eye popping with colors that look like an artists' palette and the paint takes on three dimensions as the ground Chris walks on appears to be paint. And as breathtaking as Ward's vision of heaven is, his vision of hell reaches the opposite side of the spectrum, bringing a proper darkness and ugliness to hell, without devils and pitchforks and fire...there's an absolutely repellent moment where Chris must navigate through a sea of human heads that defies description. After this hellacious journey, the convenient ending is a bit of a cheat.
Robin Williams hits all the right notes as the tortured Chris and Cuba Gooding Jr. and Max Von Sydow are also effective as Chris' guides through heaven and hell. And though I have always found her overrated as an actress, I have never enjoyed Sciorra more as the luminous and lost Annie. The film also scores in the areas of production design, cinematography, film editing, and sound. It takes a minute to get going and the ending is a little convenient, but most of this is imaginative and a little creepy.