Film Review

After careful consideration, I choose What Dreams May Come to be my all-time favorite movie. Starring Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Annabella Sciorra, it is a movie about soulmates, the afterlife and the emotions associated with the concept of heaven and hell. It is based on the novel written in 1978 by Richard Matheson of the same title as the film adaptation. Although this movie did not get great rating or reviews by film critics or websites like Rotten Tomatoes, I fell in love with not only the storyline itself by the vivid colors and visible depiction of heaven and hell. Even the author of the book made the statement " I will not comment on What Dreams May Come, except that a major producer in Hollywood said 'They should have shot your book.'Amen" It starts out with Robin Williams character, Chris, meeting Annabella Sciorra's character, Annie, in Italy in sailboats. I believe in fate in real life and was impressed that this was shown so nicely in this movie. They get married and have two kids, a son and a daughter. The kids get killed in an auto accident, which causes Annie to go mentally insane and to get put into a mental institution. Chris himself dies in an car related accident. He is a doctor in the movie and is trying to save victims of an accident that he had been stuck in traffic for. Chris finds himself in what he calls his part of heaven. It comes across as a beautiful oil painting that his wife, Annie, actually painted in real life. I enjoyed this part because I often wish I could disappear in my own paintings. Chris then meets his dog, a dalmation, that he had to put to sleep due to old age, in heaven and he thinks he is in doggie heaven. This a part of the movie that I could relate to, I own an dalmation. Annie ends up committing suicide because she is unable to deal with all the death that has occurred. Chris finds out that Annie committed suicide and that she will end up in hell because of that. He makes his mission to rescue her so that they can be together forever in afterlife. Another character is introduced as Albert, a medical mentor of Chris', played by Cuba Gooding Jr. Albert leads Chris on this mission to rescue Annie from hell. Along the way Chris discovers Albert is actually is Chris' son. His son choose to be shown to him as Albert because of the respect that his dad always had shown Albert. Chris also runs into an airline stewardess that he soon realizes is his daughter. His daughter had chosen the stewardess based on a statement that her dad said during a flight together of Asians are beautiful. Chris and his son journey to hell which is shown as the broken down house they all had lived in. Annie is trapped in that house. Chris goes in to save Annie but is warned first by his son that if he stays in there too long he too will be trapped. After the failed attempt to trigger Annie's memories, Chris decides that he will just stay in hell with her. This clearly demonstrates to me that true love means sacrifice. Annie comes to and they end up back in heaven with both kids and the dog too. The jump between the hell and heaven part wasn't thought thoroughly through and didn't make much sense to me. The film critics felt this way as well. In the end of the movie, Chris and Annie decide they want to be reborn again. The scene flashes to a lake and two kids, a boy and a girl, sailing toy boats that collide with each other, once again implying the soulmate theme. Even with all the negative reviews this film received, I would still recommend it to everybody. It has the makings of a great movie, a love story, drama and action. It is all in how you perceive heaven and hell and how you feel about soulmates and the afterlife.