What Dreams May Come
by Vincent Ward
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jessica Brooks Grant, Max von Sydow, Robin WilliamsDirector: Vincent Ward
Brand: Universal Studios
Cinematographer: Eduardo Serra
Editor: David Brenner
Editor: Maysie Hoy
Producer: Ronald Bass
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-03-04
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Polygram Filmed Entertainment
Movie Reviews of What Dreams May Come
Movie Review: A look at love and the after life!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
There's an author by the name of Richard Matheson, who's better known for his horror fiction (I Am Legend and Hell House) and the teleplays that he wrote for the original Twilight Zone series in the sixties (the most famous being Nightmare at 30,000 Feet). This is the man who had the greatest influence on Stephen King when he was a teenager and an aspiring writer. What many people don't know is that Richard Matheson also wrote two very powerful novels about undying love and soul mates, both of which were turned into successful movies--Somewhere In Time in 1980 and What Dreams May Come in 1998. This posting is about What Dreams May Come.
What Dreams May Come was written by Richard Matheson as a way of saying a big "thank you" to his wonderful wife. He wanted to write a book that would show his love for her in a very special way. When the novel was originally published, one of the producers of Somewhere In Time read it and decided that he would eventually turn the book into a movie. This finally came about in 1998. The movie, What Dreams May Come, starred Robin Williams as Chris Nielsen and Annabella Sciorra as his wife, Annie. The story is a sad one; yet, it does have a positive ending. More importantly, it has a strong message about life after death and how we choose to come into this life to be with the people we love and need to learn from. In a sense, this is the unique power of love. When you truly love someone, the energy of that emotion never goes away, no matter how many years or centuries may pass. Love is eternal.
The story of What Dreams May Come (there are plot spoilers here, so beware) deals with a middle-aged couple that has lost their two children due to a traffic accident. They have struggled to rebuild their lives and to carry on their journey together. But, another traffic accident takes Chris's life, and Annie is left alone to deal with her guilt and heartache and emptiness. As Chris's spirit gradually accepts his death, he moves into the after life, or to a very special place that's built on happy memories from his previous life. You could say that it's the place where dreams are born. He meets the man who helped trained him to be a doctor and is guided by him in an effort to readjust to this new state of being. Eventually Chris will encounter his two children, whose memories have never left his heart. In time, however, he finds out that Annie has committed suicide. She found herself unable to go on without him. Because of her belief system and because her death is a suicide, Annie's spirit ends up in what might be referred to as hell. Chris refuses to accept that he may never see Annie again and decides to go after her. Though no spirit has ever done this before, Chris is determined to make the journey to hell and to bring his wife back. This is the strength of his love for her. If he can't bring Annie back, then he'll stay in hell with her for the rest of his existence.
Needless to say, you need a big box of Kleenexes when you watch What Dreams May Come. This movie has a number of poignant moments about true love and death and the people who are interconnected to us. The photography and special effects are awesome. The movie makes you believe in life after death, and that it can be the most beautiful place that one's mind can imagine. I think this is one of the reasons the film had such a powerful affect upon me. When I saw it at the movie theater in 1998, I continued to sit there for at least ten minutes after the end credits had rolled. I wasn't the only one, either. That night, I went to see it again with some friends, and we all seemed to experience the same kind of sensation when the movie ended. It touched something deep within us that was desperately needed. I think that as human beings, we need these very special experiences every so often in order to keep us moving through the ups and downs of life. Without these moments in time that touch our hearts and souls, we would simply be moving forward as if on autopilot. There's about twenty-five minutes of extras on this DVD that deal with the making of the movie. Highly recommended!
Summary of What Dreams May Come
DOCTOR CHRIS NIELSEN MEETS HIS TRUE SOUL MATE ANNIE, MARRIESHER AND HAS TWO CHILDREN. THE CHILDREN DIE IN A CAR ACCIDENT, AND CHRIS DIES FOUR YEARS AFTER THAT. ENDING UP IN HEAVEN, HE IS GUIDED BY FRIENDLY ANGEL ALBERT THROUGH THE AFTERLIFE, AND HE IS REUNITED WITH HIS DOG AND CHILDREN.Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra star in this visually stunning metaphysical tale of life after death. Neurologist Chris and artist Annie had the perfect life until they lost their children in an auto accident; they're just starting to recover when Chris meets an untimely death himself. He's met by a messenger named Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and taken to his own personal afterlife--a freshly drawn world reminiscent of Annie's own artwork, still dripping and wet with paint. Meanwhile a depressed Annie takes her own life, compelling Chris to traverse heaven and hell to save Annie from an eternity of despair.
The multitextured visuals seem to have been created from a lost fairy tale. Heaven recalls the landscape paintings of Thomas Cole and Renaissance architecture complete with floating cherubs, while hell is a massive shipwreck, an upside-down cathedral overgrown with thorns and a sea of groaning faces popping out of the ground (one of those faces is German director Werner Herzog). Williams is the perfect actor to play against the imaginative computer-generated imagery--he himself is a human special effect. But the lack of chemistry between Williams and Sciorra is painfully apparent, and the flashback plot structure flattens the story's impact despite its deeply felt examinations of the heart and the spirit. Still, there's no denying Eugenio Zanetti's triumphant production design and the Oscar-winning special effects, which create a fully formed universe that is at once beautiful, eerie, and a unique example of movie magic. --Shannon Gee
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