What Dreams May Come (1998)
The painted world of Robin Williams.
Presentation:
I was originally not going to post this film, but felt its visuals were significant enough to belong in the Hall of Spice. I’ve never seen such a distinctly surrealist painted world like this even today, but that may also be because the image fidelity in this movie wasn’t particularly high. The lush colors are one of a kind especially contrasting with the gothic imagery in other parts of the film, which seem to have influenced Harry Potter.
Conclusion:
This film carries a lot more weight considering the passing of Robin Williams. But even still, the story in this film is extremely rough. There’s a levity provided by Williams, which ultimately make this a Hollywood popcorn drama that is at odds with the serious philosophical questions the film addresses. This is supposed to be a spiritual, religious, existential film about the afterlife, but it’s executed so simplistically and treats the audience like children. There’s no authenticity behind their words making an already shallow discussion even more mindless to watch. Everyone simply utters their lines and then moves on, and so I’m also ready to move onto the next film. Normally I’d give this a 3, but the execution is so poor that it completely invalidates any positives.
Recommendations
Level 0 of the liminal basement.