Review of What Dreams May Come (1998) by Harry W — 31 May 2014

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, What Dreams May Come sounded like a serious visual treat.

As I'm not a religious person, the story in What Dreams May Come does not have all the grand appeal to me that it would to many believers.

What Dreams May Come didn't exactly boost my opinions about god. I don't believe in the man, and the film gave me another reason not to think of him as the good spirit that so many others do. God allows people down on earth to go through all kinds of suffering, such as when Annie Colins-Nielsen loses her husband and children to two desperate car crashes. Tormented by the loss, she commits suicide. But God refuses to let her into Heaven and sends her to hell. So God allows people on earth to suffer to the point that they can't take life in more and then rewards them with eternal suffering of the worst kind. What Dreams May Come reminded me that a lot of religion is built on suffering, and it reaffirmed the fact that it was good for me to be an atheist. Religious people may have their spirits boosted by What Dreams May Come, but I as an atheist did not.

And also, as Heaven does not have Christopher Nielsen's wife in it, it becomes his hell. Heaven is said to be a perfect place, but without loved ones what is it? What Dreams May Come had me thinking a lot about the concepts of Heaven and hell and the many contradictions in them, and as a person without blind faith I was able to see a lot of the flaws in its internal logic. So the themes in What Dreams May Come did not grasp me, not to mention the fact that it's a little too optimistic to say that you could actually go from Heaven to hell and rescue someone with the power of love. All that the sentiment is actually missing is the song of the same name by Huey Lewis and the News, but even without it the concept is rather cheesy and generic. So the story in What Dreams May Come has potential but it becomes undone by how it only loosely touches upon biblical themes and tries to tie that in to a story of an emotional journey.

What Dreams May Come has a tedious plot structure. It rushes through a lot of background for the characters before becoming the story of Dr. Christopher Nielsen's journey, and from there it keeps on flipping back and forth between flashbacks and the contemporary narrative. This gets annoying as it always goes through different time periods instead of consistently sticking to a single one, and it can even prove confusing to the wrong viewer.

The language in What Dreams May Come is a little too off. The characters all speak as if Shakespeare had finally learned to speak proper English and written the script to the story. The characters in the film basically speak in a series of soliloquies most of the time in language usually reserved for speeches at graduation, and it makes the film feel a little more artificial. The language isn't bad and it is fairly insightful, but it just feels a bit too scripted, and it feels like a stage play.

So all in all, the story in What Dreams May Come is structured without sufficient support to actually hold itself up, and the most likely way that viewers will be able to overlook that is if they feel the beauty of the visual experience.

What Dreams May Come is built on magnificent Academy Award winning visual effect and Academy Award nominated art direction to boast, and it makes the film a memorable experience. The design for Christopher Nielsen's vision of Heaven is amazing because of how it captures a true magical feeling. Beginning with depicting a magical world made out of watercolour paint, What Dreams May Come gives viewers a vision unseen in any other film before, and it is simply incredible to witness. The kind of colour in What Dreams May Come is amazing, and from there it turns into a mystical surreal fantasy which is an amazing experience also. It looks like the kind of design usually reserved for an epic fantasy film, and although it isn't capitalised on as much as it could have been, it is thoroughly amazing. It is hard to walk away from What Dreams May Come without having felt the amazing strength of its visual strength, and it is the most credible aspect of the film.

The cast in What Dreams May Come also help to move it along.

Robin Williams has proved many times to be able to act in dramatic material very well, even going as far as winning an Academy Award for doing so in Good Will Hunting. In What Dreams May Come, he gives a powerful lead performance. Delivering all of his lines with the dramatic passion of a true Shakespearian actor, Robin Williams delivers the material in What Dreams May Come with raw emotional power and a tenacity over the themes in the story which makes it more compelling. Although the story in What Dreams May Come is wacky, Robin Williams makes the credibility of the film better by giving it the necessary humanity, and his leading performance shows him portraying a man of honour and a romantic all very well. Robin Williams is a great casting choice in What Dreams May Come.

Annabella Sciorra is also terrific in What Dreams May Come. Although her character is rather repetitive, she manages to create the fierce emotional reality of Annie Colins-Nielsen very easily and makes her a compelling character. Using her beautiful smile to lure viewers into caring about her and then harnessing her dramatic acting skills to leave audiences feeling the full dramatic potential of her character, Annabella Sciorra makes a terrific effort in What Dreams May Come which makes the emotional drama of the story a lot more realistic. She has no problems stepping up to the part, and she ensures that nobody regrets casting her by giving it her all in a performance that shows off.

Cuba Gooding Jr. proves himself to be a great addition to the cast in What Dreams May Come. Although his character is a bit strange, Cuba Gooding Jr. steps into the role easily and provides his natural charisma and charm to the part. By easily channeling the appropriate prions for all of his scene, Cuba Gooding Jr. puts lot of life into the film simply with his ability to create a friendly presence and his talent for interacting with the other cast members in a compelling manner. Without problem, Cuba Gooding Jr. steps up to the plate in What Dreams May Come and shares terrific chemistry with Robin Williams which makes their scenes on screen together some of the best dramatic parts of the film.

Max Von Sydow is a perfect cast member in What Dreams May Come. As arguably one of the world's most versatile actors, Max Von Sydow can play anything he wants convincingly. And for his legacy of many high profile films, he adds What Dreams May Come to the list by portraying the role of The Tracker and adding a sense of mystery to the film. Portraying the man of wisdom in a one of darkness, Max Von Sydow makes a genial presence by creating a character who is mysterious yet also wise and friendly. Max Von Sydow delivers his lines with his natural deep voice and charisma which makes him viable to the theme of mystical ambiguity in What Dreams May Come. He is a perfect cast member in What Dreams May Come and his brief amount of time on screen is very easily memorable.

But despite the talented cast and the amazing imagery of the film, What Dreams May Come's story is too strange, inconsistent and ambiguous to satisfy viewers who won't throw away logical thought for enough time to find their spirits lifted.