WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Robin Williams plays a man who dies
and goes to an art gallery curator's idea of
heaven. He yearns to be reunited with his wife,
unfortunately still alive. Visually this film is
real jaw-dropper, one of the most amazing visual
films ever made, but the content of the story is
syrupy sweet and cloying. Rating: 6 (0 to 10),
high +1 (-4 to +4)
New York Critics: 3 positive, 10 negative, 5 mixed
One of my favorite writers is Richard Matheson who represents to me the Twilight Zone sort of fiction that I enjoyed so much when I was growing up. His writing spans science fiction and horror; it spans books, magazines, TV, and film work. Stephen King cites Matheson as a very strong influence on his writing, and justifiably so. Matheson is probably the major American writer to take horror and move it from Transylvanian castles to places like American suburbs. The only Matheson novel I have ever not liked was a horrible sugary view of heaven called WHAT DREAMS MAY COME. At the time I read it I had speculated that Matheson had recently lost a loved one and had to get that death out of his system somehow. I assumed that his way to do it was to write a novel that would give him comfort. It did not do much for me. The novel has been published alone and bound with a Matheson companion novel BID TIME RETURN, basis of the film SOMEWHERE IN TIME. The two novels together form his sentimental works.
One is pulled in two very different directions by WHAT DREAMS MAY COME. The story is still the treacle that Matheson wrote. But the visual imagery is spectacular to use a word that gets used too often and should be reserved for a film like this. I have not seen very many films done this beautifully in my life. Matheson's novel has been transformed into a new Divine Comedy for our times. And like the original "Divine Comedy" of Dante, the story is wretched and the imagery is totally enchanting. (Okay, that is a personal opinion on Dante).
Chris Nielsen (played by Robin Williams) and Annie Nielsen (Annabella Sciorra) have more love in their lives than is really safe to have. They love each other so much that it is almost perverse. They also love 19th century painting. They love their two children. They love their pet dog. But their marriage is marked by tragedy. Death has claimed first their dog and then their two children. Four years after an automobile accident has claimed the two children physician Chris stops to be a Good Samaritan in a traffic tunnel accident. In a flash he is the last in a line deaths that Annie has had to face. But the point of view is not Annie's but Chris's. He finds himself first in a middle world where his ghost haunts Annie, then it moves on to heaven. Chris is guided through the lands of death by a Virgil-like angel figure named Albert (Cuba Gooding, Jr.).
And what a place heaven is! For Chris, heaven is in three dimensions what a beautiful 19th century painting is in only two. Everywhere he looks from every angle what he sees is a beautiful painting. And who comes bounding up but his dog, no longer old and feeble but young and vibrant. Chris loves heaven. The dog loves heaven. Chris will be angelically happy here... at least for the first two weeks. We get to see Chris's heaven, we get to see the heaven of some other people. And Chris gets to work out his problems. But then something happens. This something will lead Chris on an adventure seeing more of this metaphysical world including a visit to hell.
Vincent Ward, director of THE NAVIGATOR and MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART, gets from both Robin Williams and from Annabella Sciorra performances that are unselfconsciously unctuous. Cuba Gooding, Jr. comes off as benevolent and dull. But then even the plot twists are dull and have a "so-what?" feel about them. Max Von Sydow adds a Bergman-esque touch appropriate to this world. (There is one minor problem I can help the viewer through right now. When there are references to the Nielsen's daughter, they are referring to the younger child. Marie Nielsen, played by Jessica Brooks Grant, is deceptively boyish looking but proves to be a girl.)
But then there are the visuals. And if you just turn off your mind and look at the screen, all plot problems can easily be forgiven. Most artistic visualizations of heaven are saccharine. People have a natural interest in hell most visualizations of heaven are not all that interesting. This film manages to make heaven almost as interesting as hell... but in a different way.
It is really difficult to rate a film with such extremes of quality. The story is nothing impressive, but some of the images are breathtaking. On balance I have to rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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