What Dreams May Come is one of the movies that not only the story grabs you and doesn't let go, but the visuals grab you as well. This movie is beautifully made, and it is quite easy to see why it won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects the year it was released.
This movie is a tear jerker, so if that isn't for you, then this movie isn't for you probably. It is strong, and it does deliver a message. If you don't want to know about the plot, I suggest you skip this part. This movie follows the afterlife on one man, Chris Nielsen, played Robin Williams. He has the wife, and he had the children, and now he is dead. His two children died in a car accident years before, and it took a lot for his wife and himself to recover from that loss, and now his wife has to recover from losing him as well. She doesn't do too well on this, and in the end they do end up back together in the afterlife. Chris fights for her, as he did when he was alive, and Annie suffered from sever depression following the sudden death of their son and daughter.
The vision of heaven created in this movie is so beautifully breathtaking. In the afterlife in this movie, each person creates their own heaven when they die. That is where the person will spend the rest of eternity, unless they decide to be reborn. Chris' heaven is set in the world of one of Annie's paintings. One she painted of the place they first met. Through this painting though something miraculous does happen, and the two are able to somewhat communicate. This does send Annie further into depression.
I had seen this movie years ago, but only recently bought the DVD. I was in tears throughout. It is so heart wrenching and touching, but the visuals are so vivid, and there is also happiness to it. In the end, things do end up working out the way they should. The family does end up together. Lovers are reunited, and life begins all over again. I highly recommended this movie. The acting was superb, and the story was beautifully told.
Article comments
1 - eyebrow esquire
The movie inspired me to question many things about my spiritual life. The concept that we can make up our own "heaven" or choose to reincarnate excited me and left me wanting more. I picked up the book by Richard Matheson (also authored Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve ((another great spiritual movie/book)) and Stir of Echoes starring Kevin Bacon) and was amazed at the research he had done for the book; he includes a complete bibliography on spritual books concerning reincarnation. The movie has been greatly unappreciated. It's a love story and a thinking movie, not unlike Vanilla Sky - but, at it's core, it's just a great story about human nature.
2 - Gina
It is a wonderful movie, and it made me do a lot of those things as well. I wasn't aware there was a book, but now that I know I intend to try and pick it up. They always say sometimes the book is better than the movie. I'm wondering if that is true in the case of this movie.
3 - eyebrow esquire
It's been a few years since I read the book, but I remember thinking the movie is better in this case, but simply because I could never have imagined heaven, as it is portrayed in the movie, on my own. Having already seen the movie, you will probably take those images with you into the book which might make the reading process tht much more enjoyable.
4 - Mathew Howell
The movie "What Dreams May Come" is just beautiful, the only thing that comes close is the Simply Red sonf at the end of it called "Beside You", I mean, as if you havnt cried enough already. :-)
5 - Mathew in Darwin
The movie "What Dreams May Come" is just beautiful, the only thing that comes close is the Simply Red song at the end of it called "Beside You", I mean, as if you havnt cried enough already. :-)
6 - Deborah
I would love to know who the artist was that painted the picture in the movie and where I could get a copy of that painting?