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Robogeek Reviews WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
ROBOGEEK REVIEWS "WHAT DREAMS MAY COME" (SORT OF...)
"To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil..."
-- Hamlet, Act III scene I
Six years ago, New Zealand filmmaker Vincent Ward presented his
work-in-progress "Map of the Human Heart" at Cannes, and those of us in
attendance were treated to a peek at a spellbinding romantic adventure
epic, quite unlike anything ever before seen. It heralded the arrival of
a tantalizing talent onto the international stage, with the promise of a
potentially magnificent future filmography.
Ever since then, I have eagerly anticipated Ward's next film. Years
passed, and I finally heard he would be helming his first American
production -- an ambitious adaptation of Richard Matheson's "What Dreams
May Come." (Matheson, you ought to know, also authored such works as "I
Am Legend" and "Somewhere in Time.")
Later, I discovered the script was written by Ron Bass, and then I
heard the cast -- Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Annabella Sciorra,
and Max Von Sydow -- and "What Dreams May Come" landed on my list of
five most anxiously awaited films.
Of course, the script made its way to AICN HQ, though I initially
resisted the temptation of reading it. Every time I dropped by Harry's,
though, it kept calling to me from the endless stacks of screenplays
arrayed like skyscrapers throughout, among which he lords over like
Godzilla. Finally, I couldn't resist any longer, and gave into
temptation. I liberated the script and took it with me on a weekend trip
to Kerrville early this summer.
I was staying at a dear friend's family home, high on a hilltop
overlooking the Texas Hill Country. Early that Saturday morning, I went
out on the back porch with a tall glass of apple juice, accompanied by
the very polite canine-in-residence, who took a seat by my feet, and
started reading. (That is to say I started reading -- the canine,
to my knowledge, did not.) It was a gorgeous, quiet, cool summer morning
with a gentle breeze and Miyazaki-esque clouds soaring by overhead. And
after just a few pages, I was in tears. Damn, this is going to be a
great movie, I thought, imagining the characters as they'd been
cast, and contemplating Ward's direction.
I finished the script in the car on the way back to Austin, and I'm
sure my two travelling companions were wondering why I was so quiet
during the drive. Just as we reached our destination, I completed the
last page of the script.
The script totally had me until about six pages shy of the end.
Uh-oh..., I murmured to myself at that point, as I realized the
ending simply wouldn't work. I talked to Harry about it, and he of
course played Devil's advocate, disagreeing with me vehemently. (He
loves doing that. He kept me on the phone for hours once trying to
convince me the ending of "The Defective Detective" was actually perfect
instead of fatally flawed and unproducable. Someday I'll review that
otherwise brilliant Gilliam/LaGravenese script and you'll know what I'm
talking about.)
Here's my thing: Up until its original ending, "What Dreams May Come"
stays within a strict set of certain fundamental philosophical
boundaries, and doesn't cross the line into inconsistency with
conventional Western religious thought. Its interpretations and
extrapolations on some basic Judeo-Christian beliefs are certainly
novel, but steer clear of being outright contradictory. This is one of
the reasons the story works. It takes certain underpinings of common
belief systems, and builds on them inventively to create resonance.
(For instance, at the center of the film is an inspired twist on the
basic Catholic concept of a "personal hell," which yields the idea of a
"personal heaven.")
In the original ending, though, this all pretty much falls apart, as
the film makes a wild, unexpected departure from Western thought to land
smack dab in the middle of Eastern teachings of karma and reincarnation.
Reading it, this sudden shift gave me psychic whiplash, and I was struck
with the image of an entire audience suddenly stop crying, and start
scratching their heads. With that ending, I figured the film would lose
much of its hope of being a mainstream hit, and potentially alienate
half the audience who just wouldn't get it, or even want to try. It's
just too big and sudden of a philosophical leap to ask of an audience
without any manner of preparation. Even a little foreshadowing would
have helped.
So, suffice it to say, I was a little worried after reading the
script. I knew they shot the script as written, but feared what would
happen in test screenings. I knew the studio execs would panic, and lose
the ending, and possibly over-compensate and just make things worse.
And they did. In fact, later this summer I had the chance to see a
rough cut of the film. This is the film I will attempt to review. This
is not the film you will see.
This was, apparently, an intermediate attempt at a final cut of the
film. The final six pages were simply _gone_. Poof! And there was no new
ending. In fact, there was no ending at all.
I was truly stunned that anyone actually thought it would work. It
didn't.
Since then, a new ending has been concocted. I have heard about the
ending, and had it described to me in detail, but haven't yet seen it.
Apparently, it is a watered down ending. A more palatable ending. A less
philosophically threatening ending. A simplified ending. A Hollywood
ending.
I don't think it'll work, either. But then, I haven't seen it. I will
tomorrow when it opens.
Honestly, there is no easy way to effectively end this film. I've
been wrestling with the problem for months, wracking my brain. With a
little bit of reworking here, some tweaking there, the original ending
just might have worked. But it's fundamental aspect is, I think, perhaps
too big of a hurdle to bring the audience past. Ideally, if this problem
had been identified at the script stage, some delicate surgery could
have been performed, and some groundwork could have been laid to help
make the ending more palatable. The key thing -- without giving too much
away -- is that a price has to be paid at the end of the film for it to
work. My understanding of the new ending is that this price isn't really
paid, which is a problem.
And then there's the score. (Faithful readers should know by now how
important score are to me.) The film I saw had a heartbreaking,
beautiful, understated and masterful score by Ennio Morricone. Harry
called it the best score of the year. So far, I'm still in agreement
with him. It could've won an Oscar. The film you will see will have a
score by Michael Kamen. Granted, I haven't heard the new score, but I
can tell you I loved the Morricone one. I wish I had it on CD. (I'll
have to work on that...) If they _had_ to replace Morricone's score, I
wish they'd at least gotten Gabriel Yared (who exquisitely scored Ward's
previous film, the aforementioned "Map of the Human Heart," as well as a
little film called "The English Patient").
But, when all is said and done, this is still exactly the kind of
movie I'm a sucker for. It's the kind of movie I've always dreamed of
seeing, but was never entirely convinced could get made. And, well, it
was _almost_ made. It's an $80 million art film, and a breakthrough in
digital visual effects as art. And those stunning effects (by the gods
at Digital Domain, Mass Illusions, POP and CIS) are perfectly married to
gorgeous cinematography by Eduardo Serra -- both in perfect harmony with
marvellous production design by Eugenio Zanetti. In fact, those three
elements are the best of any film I've yet seen this year, and combine
to create one of the most beautiful _looking_ films I've ever seen. It
is absolutely spellbinding.
Have you ever seen Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams"? Remember the scene
where the painter is wandering through a museum gallery of Van Gogh, and
after staring at one long enough, he finds himself _in_ the paintings?
And he wanders through painting after painting, ultimately finding Van
Gogh himself (played by Martin Scorsese, no less)? This film takes
inside a world that spans Claude Monet, Maxfield Parrish, Casper David
Friedrich, and others with jaw-dropping results. This film simply
wouldn't have been possible to produce even a few years ago. It is truly
inventive.
That caliber of work is matched by the performances. The cast is
dead-on perfect. As Chris' personal heaven is first painted in
impressionistic strokes, so, in a way, is the film -- particularly the
characters and their relationships, specifically Robin Williams' Chris
and Annabella Sciorra's Annie. Their innate connection is communicated
very effectively, I thought, through careful attention to detail,
resulting in a powerful resonance. You believe these two characters are
soul mates. And as soon as you buy that, you know that nothing else
really matters to them. Williams' character literally goes through hell,
and it's convincing -- not just due to the effects, but his performance
-- the sound of his voice, the look in his eyes, the expressions on his
face. This ranks among his strongest performances, along with "Dead
Poets Society," "The Fisher King" and "Good Will Hunting." His strength
of emotional presence is matched by Cuba Gooding, Jr., who is
thrillingly fantastic, giving a pristine performance of remarkable
dimension, nuance, gravity and grace. Given he got a supporting actor
nomination for "Jerry Maguire," there's no excuse for him not to receive
one for this role. Annabella Sciorra and Max Von Sydow also deliver
exactly what they need to, but the film really belongs to Robin and
Cuba.
And, you know, I was genuinely surprised to see a big-budget
Hollywood film make statements as decisive as, say, "if you commit
suicide, you go to hell." This is a pretty heavy and deep film. However,
the strength of the statements it sets out to make may be diluted by a
cop-out ending. The story is so intricate and complex, every piece has
to fit together for it to work. This new ending weakens the very
foundation of the story and diminishes the ultimate impact the film
could have had. Still, the heart of this film is so strong, so full of
sincere honesty... If you're a hopeless romantic, and loved "Somewhere
in Time," this movie will absolutely kill you. And as brilliant as the
depiction of heaven is, the depiction of hell is at least as inspired.
I'm amazed this film even got made, and am thankful for it. Hats off
to Polygram and Interscope for having the vision and the nerve. I only
wish you had ironed out the ending before you started shooting, and that
you had kept the Morricone score. (Someday, though, I would love to see
a DVD release of the original cut. That would be a treat.)
"What Dreams May Come" is an extraordinary cinematic achievement. I
regard it as a must-see. It is _almost_ a great film. Almost. And that,
in a way, breaks my heart, because I can see the perfection it strived
for that stayed just out of reach. Still, it is an unforgettable
moviegoing experience. While it certainly will make my Top Ten list for
the year, I have a feeling it'll fall short of landing in my Top Five.
I'm encouraged by the marketing muscle that's being put behind the
film, and hope that audiences find it and connect with it. It is a
romantic adventure epic unlike anything we've ever seen, though one
heartless critic I won't name has already written it off as a "feel-good
Orpheus for the '90s, mired in mushiness." He's wrong. (I was going to
say he's a heartless bastard, but everyone's entitled to their opinion,
I suppose.)
As you know, this film opens Friday -- the same day as ANTZ, which
I'm really looking forward to. Personally, though, I'm going to see
"...Dreams..." first. I'd suggest you do the same.
- Robogeek
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+ Expand All
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If you like the visuals in this movie, check out the paintings of John Martin, (an early nineteenth century English painter, a rough contemporary of Turner, sometimes called "Mad Martin" because of the apocalyptic and grandiose subjects he painted). The background in the poster for the movie is pure Martin. There isn't much on the web on him though, so you'l have to toddle down to your local Library!
Best wishes, Andy Jackson -
Saw a screening 9-28 and was underwhelmed. Wrong director, actor, actress, script and music. Very disappointed in Vince Ward. Not disappointed in Williams, mainly because he does the same old shticks he always does. Sciorra is flat. The script muffs a lot of the good ideas from the book and substitutes a lot of bad ones in its place and Michael Kamen's score never finds an emotional spot it can't beat to death with "inspirational" music. The CGI is something, but it's almost too much in spots and actually gets distracting. Other spfx are surprisingly low-tech and cheesey looking. Unfortunately, pretty visuals do not a fantasy make, and Matheson's thoughtful book becomes yet another Robin Williams "Look Mom, I'm Emoting!" exercise. Major waste of time, talent and CGI...
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Mine is a little too big to list, but the treasures are the collector editions of The Thing, Blues Brothers, Robocop, Boogie Nights, Sweet Hereafter, and Austin Powers. Also CE's of Silence of the Lambs, Seven Samurai, and John Woo's films.
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Interesting, literate (cinerate?) review. I'm new to this site, so to know whether to take your opinion seriously, I *have* to know the answer to the following question:
"Did you actually like Jacob's Ladder?"
(If the answer is "yes", I take back what I said above!) =:D -
I haven't read something needing a complete overhaul in copy editing than this review. It was well-written and showed off the author's feelings towards the film, but he could have left out the friggin' dramatics at the beginning with reading the script. "Brought me to teats..." blah blah blah. Trust me, books and movies can bring people to tears...but a movie script can't! I wish some of you would stop considering movie scripts to be actual literature and pick up an actual book once-in-a-while!!! You'll be amazed as to what you're missing out there. Oh, and before you give me the "But Spielberg never reads books...only scripts" routine, (1) live your own lives and not one of someone you emmulate, for Christ's Sake, and (2) since some of Spielberg's best films are based on novels, I think he's read a book or two. I just read that he's found interest in bringing Richard North Patterson's book SILENT WITNESS to the screen. I don't know as director or just producer, but Newsweek had a little blurb recently saying that Amblin' bought the rights...because he read the book and fought for the rights immediately back in early 1997.
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Robogeek--
Well written review. I disagree
with the people who have said that
it is overly sentimental. Heart
is missing in a lot of today's
media. It's good to see someone
so honest despite what others may
think. I hope the ending to What Dreams May Come isn't as bad as the ending to City of Angels, that film should have ended 30 minutes before it actually did. And the ending sucked. Should've ended when she was hit by the truck or when he jumped off the building. Anyhow, What Dreams May Come will be a hit, simply because of the many documented cases of soulmates. And if the special effects to this movie are so kick ass, think what the special effects to Star Wars Episode One will be like. Woo Hoo!!!
MovieGeekGirl -
Check out the jpeg of "Sadak in search of the waters of Oblivion" at
http://umsl.edu/~klein/Museum/western_page.html (an early work, doesnt quite give you the direct connection thats in some of his later stuff).
Best wishes,
Andy Jackson -
Jesus, D. Read the review more carefully before complaining about spoilers. He said that the "Eastern" ending was in the original script, not the final movie ending.
This was a great review, Robogeek! -
What bugs me most about people who're up in arms about this film's many changes is what makes me think that maybe this internet movie scoop crap really isn't worth it. Look, a film isn't a film until it hits your local theatres. It's as simple as that. The score for this film was changed BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WORK FOR THE DIRECTOR. Bottom line. Kamen's score DOES work for the director. As for the ending... well, maybe that was something the studio wanted, BUT, why is it that people always whine about 'how it was originally'? Who cares? Some thirsts shouldn't be slaked, folks. And getting all this movie info should be kept in it's place: neat to know, but because you do you're not a player. Capiche? The final film is what all involved finally intend for you to see, not the rough cuts and screenplays and plot summaries. Try to keep that in mind when you go see What Dreams May Come.
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My man..
Get your head out of that damned film school text book, stop trying to be Copolla, and TRY to have a good time..
You missed the film by paying too much attention to unimportant things.
It's OKAY to have a good time at a film...It's OKAY to feel something.
TRY to do that once and a while. If not, and if YOU think you could do better..
DO IT. -
You know what? I liked it better
when it was known as..."Ghost"
Save some change for the bus ride
home Robin, no ones going to give
a lift to a Peter Pan that tried
to live twice, alright... -
Maybe you're being satirical and I'm making a fool of myself but Cuba Gooding win the Jerry Maguire Oscar actually.
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I was so looking forward to this film today... I love afterlife/soulmate themes, particularly a big fan of Jane Roberts' fiction and this sounded like a visual treaty on her 'you create your own reality' theme. How sad that this was such an unimaginitive piece of work. Robin Williams is terrible. He is not believable for even a moment except for maybe the "NOT - GIVING - UP" line that's all over the trailers which comes out of nowhere. Cuba is dorky, Max is wasted. The flashbacks are excrutiating. And there is nothing new in the afterlife that can't be gleaned from the trailers. They really could have gone in some very interesting exciting directions with the YOU CREATE YOUR OWN HEAVEN idea, but all we get is pure cliched christian theology. Which is NOT the book!! If this film had been billed as some sort of Dante's Inferno trip, that would have been fine - but the title and all the over-spouted new age gobblety-gook promises a LOT more and totally wastes a great opportunity as well as betrays a great book. The departure from the book is significant and very disappointing. How can anyone give a positive review of this flick? Is it the christian thing that makes u feel cumfy? Otherwise I cannot fathom it - oh oh - and whenever we have a peak moment where we're gonna see a spectacular image of heaven or hell - someone onscreen has to be there to explain what we're seeing at that moment. Totally ruins it! They dumbify every single fucking thing. And they KEEP explaining it. I hadda keep pulling my hat over my eyes or I felt I'd have that SCANNERS thing happen. and ROBIN WILLIAMS REALLY SUCKS. His performance seemed more an act of subduing comic impulses rather than generating any emotional realism and believable interaction. Sciorra is good tho. Woulda loved to see her paired with someone like Tim Robbins or Harrison Ford or Daniel Day Lewis...
This Films Sucks! -
Ok, I thought the movie was pretty good. But then again I am a fan of romantic, afterlifey movies and the like. The thing that pissed me off most about the movie was the frickin' score. It was horrible!!! At some points, it was downright distracting from the movie. There was nothing haunting or unusual about it. Just stock, inspirational, lots of misdirected strings music. The movie could have been an A with a better score. I'd really like to hear the Ennio *spelling?* Morricone score. Geesh! What the hell were they thinking????!!!
MovieGeekGirl
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