What Dreams May Come

WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (12)

D: Vincent Ward

Polygram/Interscope/Metafilmics (Stephen Simon & Barnet Bain)

US 1998

113 mins

Fantasy/Drama

W: Ron Bass [based on the novel by Richard Matheson]

DP: Eduardo Serra

Ed: David Brenner & Maysie Hoy

Mus: Michael Kamen

PD: Eugenio Zanetti

Robin Williams (Chris Nielsen), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Albert Lewis), Annabella Sciorra (Annie Collins-Nielsen), Max Von Sydow (The Tracker)

An arty and pretentious afterlife film, in which heaven is mostly portrayed as vast oil paintings. Robin Williams, as a doctor who dies in a car accident, must rescue his wife from hell following her subsequent suicide.

Aside from some vivid production design and some unique visual effects, the film doesn't manage to capture the imagination the way it anticipates or really should, perhaps due to the dialogue which resorts mostly to psychobabble nonsense. Visually, it's quite splendid, but the story simply isn't strong enough to carry the aesthetics.

5/10