What we have here is a correspondence from Roger Thornhill, a good personal friend of mine that has several bartenders at his beck and call. He hates the U.N., loves bidding on ugly art at an auction, and absolutely loves a bullet in the gullet from a beautiful blonde. Oh, and he loved What Dreams May Come, which technically wasn't a test screening, but rather an 'in-studio' presentation. Just 'Hollywood Insiders' allowed. Well, and a couple of my spies. My mouth is watering for this flick...
After reading "Eye Spy's" review of What Dreams May Come I had to break my electronic silence and give another take on last Friday's screening. Since I am an industry guy (are there any non-industry people at those screenings? I haven't met any yet) I'll have to take on some sort of spy name. Unless I can come with anything more creative, for now call me THORNHILL...ROGER THORNHILL...
For starters I was jazzed about the screening since my sister worked on the film for one day and I just recently finished reading I AM LEGEND by Matheson. Once in the screening room the Polygram guy gave us his intro....he said with a big smile...."WELCOME! This movie has 200 unfinished effects (okay, that's to be expected), this is just a rough cut(no surprise), most of the movie takes place in a painted world, which hasn't been added yet, so it'll just be a big blur behind the performers (why didn't you just invite us to the table reading?) and we don't have a film print yet so you'll be seeing a video transfer (how he could say all this and still keep a genuine smile proved Dustin Hoffman definitely didn't deserve that 5th spot Best Actor nominations)....
...so they darkend the lights, turned on the TV and we watched the 30 foot boob tube and....
I was thoroughly blown away.
This was the most intriguing, thoughtprovoking, original movie I've seen in years. That's a pretty big statement since I average about 150 movies a year. I was totally unaware of the story (still trying to find a paperback in the stores) and what unfolded in front of my eyes was truly inspirational. To be honest, I don't know whether the effects will help or hurt the movie, because the raw, grainy, look of this screening really forced my to focus on the story and really created some interesting moods that a clean whizbang film might lose.
Anyway, all the performances are awesome, especially Annabel Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Max Von Sydow. Robin Williams was good, but maybe a little too touchy-feely. The cinematography (visualizing beyond the video print) was incredible and the direction by Vincent Ward was masterful.
I'm going to avoid any summarization of the film (EYE SPY did enough damage as it is) but I will say that one must enter the film with an open mind. While the imagery is dark, the story is really quite uplifting and rewarding.
Can't wait to read the book and see the final print when it's released!
