Sunday, February 13, 2005
What Dreams May Come
- Who's watched: M & G
- Mentions: None
- Commentary: This movie was recommended to me by another customer looking for movies as Valentine's Day gifts. She and I explained to one another what we were looking for. I had a list...she did not. But, she suggested this movie, and another, which I'm going to return as, after I came home I remembered Mom and I had 'tried' the movie on cable and couldn't get into it. Not even with Gena Rowlands, who we'll usually watch in anything.
Anyway, I remember being suspicious of this movie when it first came out, around the time that John Edwards became very popular. Not that I didn't find him fascinating, too, for awhile, and my mother was hooked on his shows, but, for some reason that I can't remember, I dismissed the movie without seeing it.
So, neither of us has seen it, it should be interesting, and I don't know if we'll be keeping it or passing it on to someone else.
Update 2/14/05: We watched this movie last night. We both found the special effects fascinating, although we made the mistake of watching the movie mid-late afternoon and we definitely have a sun and glare problem in our living/dining area.
Mom had trouble keeping in her head that most of the movie was taking place in "heaven" and most of the people were dead. First, too, when she oriented herself, she thought Cuba Gooding, Jr. was god, then Max von Sydow (who played Jesus in one of her beloved Bible Movies). She also noticed that Robin Williams mugs his way through the emotional scenes in serious pictures. I'd never noticed this, but she's right. He does. He has an "emotional scenes mask" that is clearly detectable. I remember it, some, from a very obscure picture he made: Being Human; less so, interestingly, in Good Morning, Vietnam.
She also has her own very specific and very liberal ideas of "heaven"; some of which dovetail with some of the ideas in the movie...some of which don't.
I found the theology/spirituality interesting, considering that it is being put forth before the public (which wasn't all that risky in 1998; I don't think this is why the movie didn't do all that well), but not as daring as my own. Truth is, I'm not sure whether we'll watch this one again.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Robin Williams Dr. Chris Nielsen Cuba Gooding Jr. Albert Lewis/Ian Nielsen Annabella Sciorra Annie Collins-Nielsen Max von Sydow The Tracker/Albert Lewis
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 1998
Directed by Vincent Ward.
Labels: dramaB, fantasy3, max-von-sydow, popcorn-and-soda5, pseudo-cgi-animation, robin-williams, romance3, spiritual2
