What Dreams May Come . Tucson Weekly . 10-12-98

What Dreams May Come

DIRECTED BY: Vincent Ward

REVIEWED: 10-12-98

Hamlet fretted over what dreams may come when we shuffle off this mortal coil, but Robin Williams doesn't have to worry, because he's already been to heaven. And Annabella Sciorra has been to hell. This well-intentioned but stupid mutation of the Orpheus story (based on the novel by Richard Matheson) concerns a very happy couple who like each other a lot. In fact, Christy and Annie Nielsen (Williams and Sciorra) are soulmates. They have it all: an upscale life, a nanny, expensive objects, until their kids die in a car crash, and then Christy dies in one, too. Eventually he ends up in heaven, and his wife ends up in hell--Max Von Sydow plays the shrink-turned-ferryman who navigates between the two. The special effects are pretty darn nifty here, and as a welcome relief, they don't involve any shooting or blowing up. But the freshman-level philosophy ("You know who you are because you think you do!" ) and tons of painful psychoblather shove this movie into the fiery depths of banality. There is one good part: We get to hear Robin Williams called "Christy" for two hours, evoking images of a freshly scrubbed teenage girl in a tennis skirt.

--Richter

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What Dreams May Come

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What Dreams May Come

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