Review: First-rate cast, effects bring 'Dreams' to life

Robin Williams heads a strong cast in the new film from PolyGram Films that explores love, death and the afterlife. Based on the novel by Richard Matheson (author of "Somewhere in Time"), "What Dreams May Come" uses many familiar metaphors and traditional representations of the afterlife, but also uses cutting-edge visual effects to create images that have never been seen on film before.

Williams plays Chris Nielsen, a doctor whose children were killed in a car accident four years ago. His wife Annie (Annabella Sciorra), a painter, was devastated by her children's deaths, and made it through only with her husband's support.

When Chris dies unexpectedly in a car accident, Annie finds a part of her life missing.

Chris passes into the afterlife, and awakens in the fantastic landscape of one of Annie's paintings. He meets Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who was his mentor in life, and acts as his guide in the afterlife.

Chris learns that his afterlife is molded by his own imagination, which is why it has taken the form of a painting. Albert explains to Chris that here "Thought is real and physical is the illusion."

When Chris learns that his wife has committed suicide and her soul is lost in the depths of the underworld, he embarks on a quest to find her again. To this end, he enlists the aid of a Tracker (Max von Sydow), who guides him on a journey through horrific nightmare landscapes of condemned souls.

In the past few years, computerized visual effects have been used successfully to create living dinosaurs and invading fleets of alien space ships. But while "Jurassic Park" and "Independence Day" endeavored to portray the fantastic as real, "What Dreams May Come" uses visual effects for the exact opposite effect, incorporating real images to depict dreams and imagination.

The film's visual effects create a seamless melding of live action and computer-generated fantasy. The scenes in the painted world of Chris' afterlife contain flowers that glisten like wet paint, and swirling clouds that look like they were painted by Van Gogh. The other realms of Heaven and Hell use familiar depictions of the afterlife drawn from many old paintings and literary works.

While the simple plot line is not especially new or original, the dialogue and acting make the characters seem real and convincing. Williams brings his trademark humor and pathos to the role of Chris, and Sciorra is convincing as his more somber wife.

Cuba Gooding Jr. ("Jerry Maguire") is charismatic as Chris' guide through the afterlife, and Swedish actor Max von Sydow, no stranger to supernatural themes ("The Seventh Seal," "The Exorcist"), is well-cast as the wise Tracker who leads Chris to the darker depths of the afterlife.

With strong performances, realistic dialogue, and breathtaking sets and visual effects, "What Dreams May Come" earns four out of five stars.

• Visit the official "What Dreams May Come" Web site.