Review: What Dreams May Come
Starring: Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Annabella Sciorra
Directed by Vincent Ward
Anyone who has seen the ads for Dreams knows that it is a colorful and visually stunning picture. But what the commercials show is merely a small portion of the many "universes" seen in the film. That world of wet acrylic paint flowers is part of Chris' (Williams) imagination in the afterlife. Supposedly each person has their own world. But as your mind changes, your world changes. Chris is remakably similar to his human self, which the film points out is a choice on his part; something that makes it easier for him to deal with. He can be whomever he wishes, and other people can take on different faces as well.
Chris and his family don't deserve the tragedy that befalls them. He and wife Annie (Sciorra) lose their children in a car crash, an event that sends Annie off the deep end. Four years later, things seemingly patched up, Chris too dies in a car accident. His heavenly struggle then comences. He goes on a journey to reunite with his children and eventually his wife.
Unless you have seen the film, all you have seen are the bright colors of what heaven is to Chris. It is every bit as beautiful and enjoyable as you watch it flood the movie theater screen. What you have not seen, however, is Art Director Christian Wintter's (yes, two 't's) version of hell. Though the characters describe hell as different for everyone, and not truly a "hot as hell" torturous existence, it is an awful gruesome place.
For reasons I will not disclose to you, Williams must make a journey to the netherworld, and what a journey it is. He enters the "general area" and sees a somber but rather attractive world. One in which people who look as though they've been snatched from a Dickens novel float through the air over black lakes where streets should be. But once Chris makes a lunge for something in his imagination, he falls straight down to the opening of the gates of hell, a truly astonishing cinematic sight. The gates are constructed from various shipwrecks, and tormented pale bodies swim in the waters.
Dreams begins to take on a Terry Gilliam-esque feel. In a scene the ex-Pythoner would have LOVED to have been a part of, Chris tries to hop safely through a field of living but decaying talking heads. Truly something that must be seen, not described.
At one point, Dreams becomes a truly dark and uneasy film. It his sometimes hard to watch, not so much because of violence or gross-out stuff, but because of the dark concept. It is clear that Ward wanted to take the audience on an emotional rollercoaster. Whether he does is up to the individual viewer. For me, it was more like the Teacups than a rollercoaster, but it was still back and forth, and I suppose that is sufficient. But I will say that I left the theater feeling satisfied with the result. It is a film that could have gone off on a most depressing turn.
There were numerous technical glitches and some amaturish mistakes, but they slide right off the picture, leaving us with a well-directed, if sometimes choppy, film. Williams is not the goofy one we've come to know and love over the years. Nor is he the deep stretch that proves him Oscar-worthy as Awakenings and Good Will Hunting. He is the everyday emotional fellow that he plays so well. (There are an awful lot of tears in this movie.) The cast does a terrific job, though Gooding Jr. seems to disappear as quickly as he came.
* * * out of * * * * stars Reel Comments Rating 75 ©1998 Nick Amado
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