Williams' 'Dream' of love doesn't waken

Courtesy of Polygram Films Robin Williams stars as Chris Nielsen, who tries to save his wife, Annie (Annabella Sciorra) from hell.

One of the oldest themes in Hollywood is true love, and the journey of soulmates who are separated. This idea has been in a great range of movies from "Ghost" to "The Crow." The distinct pleasure of these movies is feeling the pain, longing and desire of the parted lovers, who ultimately rejoin each other in some way.

Enter "What Dreams May Come." But this is not the story of two lovers separated by physical boundaries, but by heaven and hell. That idea itself is sound, but ultimately the movie loses something in the translation between the afterlife and the movie screen.

Where "What Dreams May Come" goes wrong is hard to pinpoint, but all the elements don't tie into each other well enough to pull the film together. The film's lack of narrative structure wounds the movie too severely for any cohesiveness, giving "What Dreams May Come" a feeling of randomness and irrelevance. The many coincidences and logical jumps work against the movie because they're too convenient, too perfect.

"What Dreams May Come" tells the story of Chris (Robin Williams) and Annie (Annabella Sciorra) as soulmates who have suffered the greatest loss, the death of their children. Their ideal existence has been shattered. The couple holds together, however, until Chris dies four years later in a car accident.

When Chris dies, Albert (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), a celestial guide of sorts, tries to convince Chris to follow him to heaven. Chris resists, however, and tries to convince Annie he's still alive. But as Albert warns, this only ends up making her grief worse. Seeing her pain and hearing Albert tell him, "Reality is, it's over when you stop wanting to hurt her," Chris decides to go to heaven.

Chris' heaven is straight out of his artist wife's paintings (literally) - and Akira Kursowa's "Dreams." The heaven Chris creates for himself is one of wonder - he wonders, for instance, if he can make elephants fly - but lacks one element, Annie. It seems that soulmates are very rare, and Annie's grief on Earth has started making its way into Chris' heaven. Apparently, soulmates are really "soul-twins," so they can feel each other beyond the boundaries of life and death. (Much more happens with this aspect, but revealing it would ruin any element of suspense.)

But the movie just doesn't work. Ron Bass' screenplay can't capture the subtleties necessary for the story to function - such as Chris' desire to find his children in heaven and how his life intersects with his death. In this way, it's hard to believe Chris is ever in heaven or in any place beyond the human imagination. Bass lets the script run wild and he tries to pack too much into what should have been a simple love story.

But film is primarily a visual medium, and visually, "What Dreams May Come" is stunning. Director Vincent Ward has created a world of glorious beauty that takes your breath away. Ward shoots the movie wonderfully against an incredible backdrop, and in this way makes up for the flaws in Bass' conception of Chris' experience in heaven. To say this is one of the most incredible visions to touch the screen is years is not an overstatement. The computer-generated effects work so well that it's hard to tell they're not real. Ward's skill as a director, combined with Eduardo Serra's cinematography and Eugenio Zanetti's production design, almost salvages the film. Alas, the film's visuals fail to hold the story together, which a director needs in order to make a successful film.

In addition to the film's magnificent production value, the acting is generally strong. The only weak link in the acting is Gooding, who is miscast, and turns out a hit-or-miss performance throughout the film. Williams is generally strong, even when delivering hambone lines that would have become laughable in a less skilled actor's hands ("It's about not giving up!"). But Sciorra is the revelation here. Her spectacular performance sets her above the rest of the cast in her ability to balance the emotional rollercoaster Annie is on. Sciorra's performance is both restrained and emotional, using Annie's grief to make the character human. It's not hard to believe any person would not react to her tragedies the way Annie does.

Making a good film about death is a difficult aim, even when heaven and hell, and love and separation aren't complicating the mix. So Ward's bravery in making "What Dreams May Come" should be commended. One only wishes some of that bravery had gone into producing a first-rate script to film.

10-07-98