The review I
wrote that was published in the Malibu Chronicle in 1998 on “What Dreams May
Come,” the movie starring Robin Williams, that gets
its title from a line in Hamlet's "To
be, or not to be" soliloquy deserves
deeper contemplation in context with Robin Williams crossing, and the
incredible life he shared with us all.
When I reflect on the body of
work that Robin Williams has contributed to our world, his compassion,
humor, and zany child-like innocence that beckoned to choose roles in films
that dealt with the core issues of being human, focused on life and death, either
profoundly deep, or with the simplicity we all find relative. Robin certainly lived
more than most in one life time. Of
course we are all thankful for the laughter, his incredible imagination, and
his Zeitgeist for being Zany and outside-the-box.
Personal memories of roller skating as a
youth at special events and parties at Roxy Roller Rink with both Christopher
Reeve and Robin—fueled my young imagination, causing a school girl to blur the boundaries
between fantasy and reality, as we rolled around the circle to music, with
laughter ingraining that life is indeed a big circle, where anything was
possible…Both of these iconic acquaintances’ crossing hit a primal nerve that
is quite profound in evaluating the body of their work with the roles they chose
to play reflecting within the context of their lives and deaths.
Wishing the loved ones Robin left behind
that they don’t have to go through the journey Robin Williams did in the role of Dr. Chris Nielsen in "What Dream May
Come," to cross beyond life into the realms beyond Earth, Heaven and Hell--to realise the ultimate mystery of unconditional love. Yet the power of unconditional love is the message, and
surely love can transcend, even a life lived as a work of art.
Robin’s works
and the plethora of humanity he embraced with his person evokes the wonder
about the phenomena of when art transcends or becomes life, and life transcends
or becomes art? Is there validity to the concepts, theory and premise lived
out in What Dream May Come? If so, Robin’s
crossing is merely the second act of the three Act play that becomes or
transcends the cycle of life, and yet remains eternal. Again, to those who live on with his personal love
inside, the deepest sympathy for the journey love causes us to undertake to transcend the pain of loss and change of form.
Here is what I wrote for
The Malibu Chronicle published in 1998
(Review
Essay)
Movies
to the Maxx
What
Dreams May Come.... Beyond the time, space, continuum...
Every once in a
while comes a film that breaks the standard genres and enters a new dimension
of entertainment. For those willing to enter into another paradigm of
possibilities and explore existential questions, you will be crying with joy at
the opportunity to dance in the abyss of experiencing a most special journey,
into the real world- where the continuum of time and space occurs like a dream,
in What Dreams May Come, directed by Vincent Ward.
Just the way
life reflects art and art reflects life, this movie will challenge your core
beliefs about life, death and love and God.
What Dreams May Come is a romantic drama that experiments with
the idea that soul mates, and soul connections really exist beyond what is
seen. It beautifully demonstrates the
possibility of cause and effect and how everything in your life “Is,” because
you cause it to Be- in alignment with something higher...God?
After Chris
Neilson (Robin Williams) dies, his heaven is actually, a beautifully painted
world. As explained to Chris Neilson in
the film; “We all paint our surroundings here, but you’re the only one who’s
chosen real paint.” The relationships
of the soul extends past the present time as demonstrated by the commitments
kept in life with family and friends that extend into eternity. Chris Nielson’s love for his wife and family,
transcends time and he is willing to go beyond the duality of Heaven and Hell
to fulfill his soul’s connection with his mate.
Coloring What
Dreams May Come is a very talented cast.
Robin Williams demonstrates his flexibility and multidimensional skills
that balance his powerful serious side, with his natural gift for humor and
play. Annabelle Sciorra authentically
deals with the aging and shifts of time the film explores. Max Von Sidow brings a depth of consciousness
into his character, who once again is reminiscent of life and death with other-
world- like accuracy. Cuba Gooding, Jr.
takes on the physicality of being a child in a man’s body with ease.
What Dreams May
Come
demonstrates the power of thought as it creates our perception of reality and
time. “Thought is real, and physical is the illusion,” as expressed in the
film. Awake our perspective of the
dream state diminishes, compared to dreaming, where the dream feels like
reality. We see our physical worlds as
we choose to see them. If reality lies
in perception and one doesn’t believe in the possibility of dreams coming true,
than in reality-- their dreams die.
If reality is
malleable than how is it that we, as human beings, come to choose dark instead
of light? Each person’s Heaven and Hell
is their own creation. “Everybody’s Hell
is different, the real hell is your life gone wrong,” as explained in the film.
The concept of Heaven and Hell and the personification of the internal world,
thus becoming the external reality, is executed quite adeptly. What Dreams May Come takes us into a world to
explore these questions on a journey where the fear that lives in the mind, can
do visual battle with the soul’s higher purpose.
What Dreams May
Come
causes reflection as to what is real and what is a dream? These questions are presented with authority
coming from the novelist Richard Matheson who brought you Somewhere In Time
and Incredible Shrinking Man. Can
we expect anything lighter from Academy Award winning, screen writer Ron Bass (Rainman)
who adapted the novel? What Dreams...
explores what is beyond the physical body, the mind, and how the Soul is
challenged to blend this trinity of energies into one.
“For those who
dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find
that was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous for they may act
their dreams with open eyes and make it possible”...
-T.E. Lawrence--
Like the
dreamers of the day, What Dreams May Come is a transformational film in
that, it deals with the premise that
just like the dream of the night is to the day, our lives as we understand them
to be, are small in the scale of eternal life... Should we chose to become
aware and dream in the eternal realm, then there are no limits.
Through the
reflection of the journey Robin William’s character makes the question as to
whether everything in life is connected; through a purpose, a grand design,
beyond time and space and the material world as we know it to be or exist, is
raised. Do we choose our parents and
thus the psychological dynamics we grow up in, to provide the structure and
familiar patterns to help bring us to our soul mate, where we can work out the
karma of the past with love, play in the future and create a new possibility
beyond our mind’s ideas?
We all have
experienced the feeling of meeting someone for the first time and having an
automatic response to that person that transcends the reality of the present
introduction. We recognize this person
from what feels like the past, there is something familiar about them. The challenge is to find out where this
person fits in your present life. These
soul connections are the makings of notions such as, “love at first
sight”. Is there just one soul mate for
each being? What feels like your soul
“mate” may be a soul connection.
What Dreams May
Come
plays with these relations in a profound way, and answers these questions with
a possibility of life that is quite refreshingly new, yet perhaps is quite
appropriate for this “New Age” as we come into the millennium. The movie brings
the audience on a journey of faith without confronting the fundamental
principles that usually divide religions.
Early in the film Chris Neilson asks, “Where is God in all of
this?” The answer is brushed off with, “He’s
up there, somewhere...” Yet God’s works
are presented, especially at the end, where there is Divine Intervention
regarding the rules and paradigms of Heaven and Hell. Time does not exist, as
this movie expresses. What Dreams May Come artistically blends the laws
of karma from non -western philosophy, with Christian believes of heaven and
hell, painting different possibilities taken from world religions, and the
theories recently demonstrated in quantum physics, from people such as Stephen
Hawking.
What Dreams May
Come
artistically creates a collage of the complexity of life that is dramatically
compelling and engages the senses to embark on journey where each breath
captures the beauty of life in language and through vision. That old cliché about life being a “blank
canvas,” is demonstrated and layered throughout What Dreams May Come,
both literally and figuratively. The
movie dances between the actual and the metaphorical gracefully probing the
mind to question what “Is?”
The lines in Ron
Bass’s script may leave you in introspection, or the powerful language could
cause you to go in the opposite direction.
In this regard What Dreams May Come’s premise is quite
interactive with the ultimate mysteries of life. Lines like, “Never give up, never give
up...”.and “At least you are willing to see yourself.” And contemplating, “What do you mean by
you?” And also, “You see your body
because you like seeing one, you chose to see what you chose to see.” Cutting
to the core is; “Sometimes when you win you lose, sometimes when you lose you
win.” This dialogue moves us beyond duality, and identity, showing how it’s all
relative to perspective...
This movie
exposes the cyclical pattern of life in an extraordinary way in multiple
dimensions, and with unprecedented effects.
If you are not ready to confront this primal inquiry of beliefs that are
usually reserved for the dream state, than at the least this film, frame by
frame, will reveal a work of visually entertaining art. What Dreams May Come is where
past, present and future occur in no
time, or the same time, just as life does with death, it’s all cyclical, it’s
all related, it means everything and Nothing at the same time, beyond time.
