romantic fantasy directed
by : Vincent Ward featuring
: Robin Williams - Cuba Gooding Jr - Annabella Sciorra - Max Von Sydow
- Jessica Brooks Grant running
time : 1 hour 53 minutes
Based on a metaphysical
1978 novel by science fiction and horror author Richard Matheson, this
romantic fantasy-drama won an Oscar for its expensive and impressive visual
vistas depicting an imaginative afterlife. Robin Williams stars as Chris
Nielsen, a doctor who has suffered with his artist wife Annie (Annabella
Sciorra) through the devastating loss of their children, Marie and Ian,
who were killed in a car accident. Although Annie's all-consuming depression
nearly destroyed their marriage, the couple rebuilt their relationship
and are now living out a comfortable middle age. Stopping one night to
help a motorist in a wreck, Chris is struck by a car and killed. At first
confused about where he is, Chris meets Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr), a spiritual
guide who helps him to realize he's passed away and that he must move on
to the next world. After trying with only limited success to communicate
with the devastated Annie, Chris moves on and discovers an afterlife that
can become whatever one envisions, where even his pet dog awaits him. What
Chris envisions as paradise are the paintings of his wife, and he happily
takes up residence there, awaiting the far-off day when Annie will eventually
join him. He also meets his children, although they have chosen different
appearances than the ones they had in life. Then tragedy strikes when Annie,
inconsolable, commits suicide and goes to Hell. Although it is rarely done,
Chris insists on traveling there, risking his eternal soul to save the
woman he loves. Accompanied part of the way by Albert and a wizened guide
called The Tracker (Max Von Sydow), Chris finally reaches Annie in Hell,
and must convince her of the truth in order to release her from her dark
prison.
What Dreams
May Come had the misfortune of arriving just as public tolerance for Williams
n sentimental roles was waning dramatically. Though the much-seen Patch
Adams was still to come, Dreams doubtlessly suffered from the rejection
of those already burned by Fathers' Day, Jack and their ilk -- which is
too bad. Though the film treads the dangerous line between spirituality
and kitsch, its deeply imaginative vision of the afterlife is both memorable
-- especially the production design -- and moving. In many ways, it's a
triumph of low expectations. Williams, Sciorra, and Gooding all turn in
affecting performances. Similarly, screenwriter Ronald Bass may seem like
the wrong person to tame the New Age qualities of Matheson's story but,
like the work of Krystof Kieslowski and the film The Sixth Sense, Vincent
Ward proves that bad metaphysics can be converted into highly effective
metaphors. Though not without its excesses, any film that can get away
with scenes of a despondent Williams wandering paradise with his beloved
pooch demonstrates an admirable ability to succeed on its own unique terms.
Look fast for Werner Herzog as one of Hell's lost souls.
