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Chris (Robin Williams) and his wife endure terrible grief after the loss of their two children. Further tragedy strikes...
Chris (Robin Williams) and his wife endure terrible grief after the loss of their two children. Further tragedy strikes when Chris dies in a car accident. He is transported to an afterlife paradise created from paintings composed by his wife, who can barely continue living without him. He befriends heavenly guide Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and tries to enlist his help in retuning to the realm of mortals so that he may be with her and bring an end to her suffering.
Based on Richard Matheson's novel of the same name, What Dreams May Come contains several allusions to Dante's The Divine Comedy and takes its title from a Hamlet soliloquy. The film's unique aesthetic is due to it being one of only a handful of films to be shot entirely on Fuji Velvia film, known for its vivid colour saturation. This turned out to be the perfect medium to convey the special effects and art direction, which won and were nominated for Oscars respectively. The original prints were lost in a studio back lot fire and a global search is being conducted to find an alternate copy.
This was Vincent Ward's first US based production.
Based on Richard Matheson's novel of the same name, What Dreams May Come contains several allusions to Dante's The Divine Comedy and takes its title from a Hamlet soliloquy. The film's unique aesthetic is due to it being one of only a handful of films to be shot entirely on Fuji Velvia film, known for its vivid colour saturation. This turned out to be the perfect medium to convey the special effects and art direction, which won and were nominated for Oscars respectively. The original prints were lost in a studio back lot fire and a global search is being conducted to find an alternate copy.
This was Vincent Ward's first US based production.
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Where to watch What Dreams May Come
52 %69 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® rating
84 %167,665 reviewsAudience score rating
"A heaping serving of metaphysical gobbledygook wrapped in a physically striking package."
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Variety
Variety"There are a number of surprises in the idiosyncratic film, and one of its pleasures is the oblique and unchronological way in which Ward peels away the layers of the story, flashing backward and forward in time and jumping between Earth and the Beyond, separating his scenes with blindingly blank, white-out screens."
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The Washington Post
The Washington Post"What Dreams May Come, based on a novel by Richard Matheson and directed by Vincent Ward, the New Zealand filmmaker noted for his skill at creating lavish cinematic dreamscapes, represents the uncomfortable collision of two ideas about filmmaking, one commercial, the other eccentrically, ambitiously dreamy."
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The New York Times
The New York Times"Astonishing visualizations of the afterlife are coupled with a drawn-out allegory about communication between the living and the dead that becomes something of a trial to sit through."
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San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle"How can a film look so radiant and be so hollow?"
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Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone"So breathtaking, so beautiful, so bold in its imagination, that it's a surprise at the end to find it doesn't finally deliver."
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Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert"This is one of those failures that has so many near-great things that it almost gets by on guts."
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Empire Magazine
Empire MagazineWhat Dreams May Come | Details
Award winner- Best Visual Effects, Academy Awards 1999
- Runtime
- 113
- Genre
- Drama
- Country of origin
- USA, New Zealand
