The 1998 dramatic film What Dreams May Come is a stunning and visual journey that explores the realms of the afterlife. Starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. , the film utilizes great acting and an intriguing plotline that keeps you guessing until the end.
This brief essay will outline the major accomplishments and highlights that made this film so memorable. Director Vincent Ward created a imaginative and purely visual landscape to illustrate the dream worlds of what a possible heaven might look like.In the film the character Chris Nielsen is killed in a car accident and he literally wakes up as a painting in the afterlife. In a remarkable scene that sets the visual tone for the rest of the movie, Chris reaches out to grab a flower and ends up with a handful of paint and he slips on a multicolored pathway.
As he struggles to comprehend what is going on, his spiritual guide Albert draws his fingers to make a window in a wall and we witness the paint dripping as he pushes the window through.The plot itself is another adventure that asks us how and if we should affect real Earthly life from the afterlife. We are asked this question because Chris’ wife wants to commit suicide following his death and Chris wants to do everything in his power that will allow his wife to join him in the afterlife. That being said, suicides are only admitted to another afterlife, not the one Chris inhabits.
Overall, What Dreams May Come is a thought provoking and a visual masterpiece that makes us consider the possibilities that exist beyond our everyday lives.
