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Let’s compose a great movie. First we’ll base it on a typical love story — boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl. With a little more depth and meaning, the love thing will capture the emotions of the audience. Then let’s have big special effects to satisfy those with short attention spans.
Just such a movie is What Dreams May Come, which stars Robin Williams as Chris Nielson, whose soul has just entered heaven. It is an intense love story of a family torn apart by tragic car crashes. It depicts beautiful notions about life before as well as after death. Chris’s heaven is self-created and inspired by his wife, Annie (Annabella Sciorra), and her paintings of where they wish to grow old together.
Upon entering the boundless state of heaven, Chris is overwhelmed with the desire to find his two children, who died four years before him, and also to watch over his wife. His hip heavenly mentor, Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.), helps him ease into life up above and also to guide him through the new experiences contained in heaven as well as to reveal certain surprises about Chris’s children.
Albert is surprised that Chris and his wife can connect through her paintings. When Annie paints a tree, it comes to life in Chris’s heaven. It is the first time Albert has seen anything of this sort between two soul mates. The strength of their relationship and connection is revealed through many examples similar to this painting incident.
When Chris discovers his wife has committed suicide and has been exiled to hell, he makes the trek to the place of damnation to bring her to heaven. Annie is not bound to hell by her suicidal act, but rather her unwillingness to accept that her family’s deaths are not her fault. Her hell is in her rotting house and in her self-delusional mind. Chris’s undying love for his soul mate leads him to leave the paradise of heaven and traverse through the underworld to find his Annie.
This movie is rich in plot, but also in special effects. The special effects of this $100 million movie were well worth it in creating an appropriate heaven and hell. Heaven is flatteringly based on Glacier Park, which was enhanced a little from its present state.
Hell is, of course, an unpleasant place filled with wrecked ships, lost souls and dark crevices.
With dazzling effects, flying souls, and elaborate worlds of paradise and torture, this release captures the beautiful side of life, death and the love that comes in both.
What dreams may come is a great movie. It features talented actors, amazing special effects and enough meaning to fill the heavens. All this and more accompanies this profound and beautiful movie.
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