Taken from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" ("To sleep: perchance to dream. ... For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come ..."), the title of Vincent Ward's remarkable film starring Robin Williams as a dead man is the first sign proclaiming its seriousness -- the first inkling one is not in for another "Hook", "Jack" or "Flubber".
Indeed, what grosses may come will depend on distributor PolyGram's tricky marketing of this afterlife fantasy, which is more challenging dramatically and artistically than "Ghost" but, sadly, less involving on a gut level. A visual feast not to be passed up and bound to pack an emotional punch for many viewers, particularly women, "What Dreams May Come" has the aura of a theatrical hit and should successfully haunt the marketplace before ascending to ancillary Elysian fields.
Departing significantly from Richard Matheson's 1978 novel, the screenplay credited to Ron Bass posits Williams as Chris Nielsen, a doctor who dies and goes to a heaven where "thoughts are real," leaving behind his true love and wife Annie (Annabella Sciorra). There he meets other spirit beings and eventually has to employ a "tracker" to find Annie's tortured soul in a hell she creates when she commits suicide.
Matheson's original, semiautobiographical book may have lacked action and filmworthy epiphanic moments, but it presented a compelling life-after-death scenario that centered mostly on the incredible journey of self-discovery made by a deceased screen and TV writer. Ward and Bass jettison most of the novel's first half and make Chris and Annie's lives marred by disaster, when their teenage son (Josh Paddock) and daughter Jessica Brooks Grant) die in a traffic accident.
In crisp, short scenes of earthly reality alternating with more lyrical attempts to show the dreamy, intangible environment of the beyond, "Dreams" more or less follows Chris' odyssey to save Annie, along with his and her memories and dreams of memories. Got that? It gets much more complicated. Much of Chris' story takes place in the Painted World: the couple's dream house in a spectacular mountain setting, based on Annie's art in real life.
Inspired by Monet, Van Gogh and 19th century German Romanticists, the filmmakers create many beautiful images. The special effects in such sequences as Annie painting a jacaranda tree -- which appears in Chris' heaven and then withers and dies -- are stunning. Other visions, however, are an uneasy mixture of Dante and Disney, with paradise in some ways portrayed as just another big amusement park/art gallery in the sky -- where everyone can fly like, er, Peter Pan and be reunited with old pets (sniff).
Chris must be first be horribly killed and meet ghostly Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who informs him: "You didn't disappear. You just died." Somewhat troublesome for the movie, however, life-after-life-on-Earth still entails too many rules and expository dialogue. When duty calls Albert away, Chris is shown Marie's World -- a mighty golden city perched on the edge of a mighty abyss -- by the radiant etheric denizen Leona (Rosalind Chao). "It's all in your mind" is the catchall phrase of eternity.
In both heaven and hell, the immediate environment reflects the thoughts and moods of the characters, while characters such as Albert, Leona and the Tracker (Max Von Sydow) are not who they appear to be. When Annie takes her own life, soulmate Chris goes against those pesky rules and tries to reunite with her, and the film offers more wondrous sights such as the borderland to hell where the victims of shipwrecks reside.
In addition to the complex structure and its get-out-your-guidebooks metaphysical nature, the film is also somewhat tripped up by Williams' predictable performance. Meanwhile, Gooding and Chao -- the former distorted in many scenes with eerie effects -- are both worthy guides for the audience, and Sciorra is excellent in one of her best roles.
"Dreams" is a technical knockout, another expensive art film in the same league as "Brazil" and "Toys". Hosannas to all involved, particularly production designer Eugenio Zanetti, director of photography Eduardo Serra, costume designer Yvonne Blake and the many digital artists and animators listed on the seemingly endless closing credits.
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
An Interscope Communications productions
in association with Metafilmics
Credits: Director: Vincent Ward; Screenwriter: Ron Bass; Based on the novel by: Richard Matheson; Producers: Stephen Simon, Barnet Bain; Executive producers: Ted Field, Scott Kroopf, Erica Huggins, Ron Bass; Director of photography: Eduardo Serra; Production designer: Eugenio Zanetti; Editors: David Brenner, Maysie Hoy; Costume designer: Yvonne Blake; Music: Michael Kamen; Casting: Heidi Levitt. Cast: Chris: Robin Williams; Annie: Annabella Sciorra; Albert: Cuba Gooding Jr.; The Tracker: Max Von Sydow; Marie: Jessica Brooks Grant; Ian: Josh Paddock; Leona: Rosalind Chao. MPAA rating: PG-13. Color/stereo. Running time -- 113 minutes.
Indeed, what grosses may come will depend on distributor PolyGram's tricky marketing of this afterlife fantasy, which is more challenging dramatically and artistically than "Ghost" but, sadly, less involving on a gut level. A visual feast not to be passed up and bound to pack an emotional punch for many viewers, particularly women, "What Dreams May Come" has the aura of a theatrical hit and should successfully haunt the marketplace before ascending to ancillary Elysian fields.
Departing significantly from Richard Matheson's 1978 novel, the screenplay credited to Ron Bass posits Williams as Chris Nielsen, a doctor who dies and goes to a heaven where "thoughts are real," leaving behind his true love and wife Annie (Annabella Sciorra). There he meets other spirit beings and eventually has to employ a "tracker" to find Annie's tortured soul in a hell she creates when she commits suicide.
Matheson's original, semiautobiographical book may have lacked action and filmworthy epiphanic moments, but it presented a compelling life-after-death scenario that centered mostly on the incredible journey of self-discovery made by a deceased screen and TV writer. Ward and Bass jettison most of the novel's first half and make Chris and Annie's lives marred by disaster, when their teenage son (Josh Paddock) and daughter Jessica Brooks Grant) die in a traffic accident.
In crisp, short scenes of earthly reality alternating with more lyrical attempts to show the dreamy, intangible environment of the beyond, "Dreams" more or less follows Chris' odyssey to save Annie, along with his and her memories and dreams of memories. Got that? It gets much more complicated. Much of Chris' story takes place in the Painted World: the couple's dream house in a spectacular mountain setting, based on Annie's art in real life.
Inspired by Monet, Van Gogh and 19th century German Romanticists, the filmmakers create many beautiful images. The special effects in such sequences as Annie painting a jacaranda tree -- which appears in Chris' heaven and then withers and dies -- are stunning. Other visions, however, are an uneasy mixture of Dante and Disney, with paradise in some ways portrayed as just another big amusement park/art gallery in the sky -- where everyone can fly like, er, Peter Pan and be reunited with old pets (sniff).
Chris must be first be horribly killed and meet ghostly Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who informs him: "You didn't disappear. You just died." Somewhat troublesome for the movie, however, life-after-life-on-Earth still entails too many rules and expository dialogue. When duty calls Albert away, Chris is shown Marie's World -- a mighty golden city perched on the edge of a mighty abyss -- by the radiant etheric denizen Leona (Rosalind Chao). "It's all in your mind" is the catchall phrase of eternity.
In both heaven and hell, the immediate environment reflects the thoughts and moods of the characters, while characters such as Albert, Leona and the Tracker (Max Von Sydow) are not who they appear to be. When Annie takes her own life, soulmate Chris goes against those pesky rules and tries to reunite with her, and the film offers more wondrous sights such as the borderland to hell where the victims of shipwrecks reside.
In addition to the complex structure and its get-out-your-guidebooks metaphysical nature, the film is also somewhat tripped up by Williams' predictable performance. Meanwhile, Gooding and Chao -- the former distorted in many scenes with eerie effects -- are both worthy guides for the audience, and Sciorra is excellent in one of her best roles.
"Dreams" is a technical knockout, another expensive art film in the same league as "Brazil" and "Toys". Hosannas to all involved, particularly production designer Eugenio Zanetti, director of photography Eduardo Serra, costume designer Yvonne Blake and the many digital artists and animators listed on the seemingly endless closing credits.
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
An Interscope Communications productions
in association with Metafilmics
Credits: Director: Vincent Ward; Screenwriter: Ron Bass; Based on the novel by: Richard Matheson; Producers: Stephen Simon, Barnet Bain; Executive producers: Ted Field, Scott Kroopf, Erica Huggins, Ron Bass; Director of photography: Eduardo Serra; Production designer: Eugenio Zanetti; Editors: David Brenner, Maysie Hoy; Costume designer: Yvonne Blake; Music: Michael Kamen; Casting: Heidi Levitt. Cast: Chris: Robin Williams; Annie: Annabella Sciorra; Albert: Cuba Gooding Jr.; The Tracker: Max Von Sydow; Marie: Jessica Brooks Grant; Ian: Josh Paddock; Leona: Rosalind Chao. MPAA rating: PG-13. Color/stereo. Running time -- 113 minutes.
- 9/29/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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