Here's a look at the test screening for WHAT DREAMS MAY COME from the female side of things. Now at a surface level this review might seem awfully pat, but believe me, from the footage I've seen, from the script I read and from the knowledge that Vincent Ward is brilliant, I believe it 100%. So award this review to the film with the best poster around, god that's gorgeous, and saddle up when this hits your theater. Just as a note, I've had 6 reviews of this film so far over the course of test screening. Many of them have appeared on the site. 5 positives and 1 "I didn't like it because I didn't feel like going to McDonald's afterwards" negative. The film is disturbing and dark, and I personally feel it is going to be brilliant. Let's keep our fingers crossed and our ears to the tracks... could be great! Now for the astounding she monster's review...
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME is among the most amazing movies I've ever seen, for three reasons:
1. Robin Williams. An emotional tour de force from the man with the rubber face - of which there's no trace in this movie. It's rare to feel such a full range of emotion from an actor, without feeling manipulated in the slightest. Usually such profound emotions as grief, ecstasy and hope are conveyed with tremendous sentimentality - not so from Robin. His every gesture and action ring the bell of true deep emotion - which we all know can be intense, powerful, divine - but rarely sweet or soppy. I hate soppy!!
2. The cinematography is orgiastic. You can sense a potent artistic intelligence behind the "special effects." I've never seen anything like it - it's Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin come to life, seamlessly. You have to see this to believe it. In addition to the "painting in motion" effect, there are other amazing effects, effects that are never superfluous or wank-y - they are always tied to the making of the point in the story. Very cool. (Hate those "let's throw everything at them til they can't breathe and notice how crappy the story is" special effects. None of that here.) All effects serve the story. There's one scene where RW and others are walking over the faces of those in hell, in search of Annabella Sciorra. The bodies are submerged in dirty mush, half eaten, suffering, screaming. Quite a departure from the fire-and-brimstone version of hell, but this was a scarier representation than any I'd ever seen (or dreamed!!)
Even if you hate the story and the actors, you will still love the movie by just ignoring them and just letting your eyes groove.
3. The story. Basically, this is the story of what happens to the bond between you and those you love, AFTER DEATH. (The following gives the story away, so skip this if you want.) Williams and Sciorra play a couple who have lost their children in a car accident. Some years later, Williams dies in another car accident, leaving Sciorra behind in a world of guilt and pain. While living, they share a REAL love, full of joy, tragedy, housework: regular life. Underneath it all, they have that special bond that informs AND transcends all. After death, he longs to be with her, he can't stand the vision of her suffering. His attempts to reach her from the other side only cause her more pain. Eventually she kills herself, consigning herself to hell while Williams and their children are in some kind of beautiful heaven. He vows to find her, heal her, offer her what is needed to escape the bonds of hell. Along the way he receives help both physical and spiritual from Cuba Gooding Jr , Max Von Sydow (fabulous, bringing just the perfect shadow of Bergmann) and an Asian actress whose name I had never heard before.
Anyway, almost all of that is beside the point I really want to make. The point I really want to make about the story is that this is the first movie I have seen about death that is truly spiritual. (IE not just romantic or supernatural.) Yes, it falls into some vats of newage (rhymes with sewage), but I forgave all that when I felt that the INTENTION of the movie was to show the spiritual bonds of the heart, through life and through death, which, after all, are not different from each other in the eyes of the world's spiritual traditions. I was truly moved by this movie.
I think it will be really, really hard to market this movie while safeguarding its integrity (ie don't turn it into The Celestine Prophecy!!), but I wish everyone who is connected with this all the best. The version I saw didn't have the final music score - which I think can have significant impact on the impact of the movie. If they go some kind of Yanni or Enya route, too bad. If they go a simpler, more Ry Cooder-ish route, that would be much cooler, to me.
OK, there's my $0.02 worth!!
