What Dreams May Come

Closing off the tribute to Robin Williams is What Dreams May Come, a 1998 fantasy drama based off the Richard Matheson novel of the same name. Directed by Vincent Ward, it also stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Annabella Sciorra, and Max von Sydow. While it was a box office flop, losing $2 million, it won the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design as well as the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It lost Best Art Direction to Shakespeare in Love.

Chris (Williams) and Annie’s (Sciorra) idyllic life is shattered when their two children are killed in a car wreck, causing Annie to become emotionally unstable. However, four years later, the two reconcile, but Chris is killed in another car accident. Finding himself in heaven, he is unhappy without Annie. When he finds out she committed suicide and is now in hell, he becomes determined to bring her back.

What Dreams May Come has a very interesting interpretation of both Heaven and Hell, couple that alongside very vibrant and well done visuals, the film is pretty good. However, it still has deviations from the novel and can sometimes the sentimentality can get a little too heavy handed.

The film has a fascinating interpretation of Heaven and Hell, going so far as to portray them as not only what your mind makes of it, but that what you imagine it to be becomes that reality. It makes the Heaven wonderful in that you love being there and can always imagine something to add to it. On the other hand, Hell is not only filled with terror, but it becomes more terrifying as whatever horrors you can imagine materialize. Repeat ad infinitum.

The visuals are also incredibly well done, especially when Chris first gets to heaven and everything is made of oil based paint. It really did well with mixing, smearing, and disintegrating it too, which helped in making it more realistic.

However, the film does deviate some from the book, which has more references to New Age and Theosophical doctrines and the paranormal. Albert and Leona are the people they actually appear to be as the children don’t die and Ann is just meant to be in Hell for 24 years. While these changes were probably made to make the film more sentimental, some of those scenes can come across as just a little much. One in particular is when Chris finds out that Albert is actually his son. The constant shifts to the scene when the two are alive and Albert walking towards Cerberus while he figures it out is drawn out just a little too long.

Despite those deviations and the drawn out sentimentality of a few scenes though, What Dreams May Come is still good. The depiction of the afterlife will obviously not mesh with some viewers’ beliefs, but that doesn’t stop it from being an enjoyable film. 

Patch Adams

Robin Williams starred in a semi-biographical comedy-drama about Dr. Hunter “Patch” Adams in 1998. Patch Adams was a box office success, starring Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bob Gunton, Daniel London, and Peter Coyote alongside Williams. It was nominated for Best Original Score and two Golden Globes.

Patch Adams (Williams) is a medical student who wants to treat people, not just diseases. He bucks authority and acts silly and unprofessionally. He also drags his roommate Mitch Ronan (Hoffman) and two other friends (Potter and Daniel London) into his schemes as well.

Patch Adams may have been a financial success and was acted incredibly well, but unfortunately the plot did a tremendous disservice to the real Adams and his work.

The best acting really came from Williams and Hoffman. Williams did really well in the beginning of the film where he just wanted to help people no matter what the system did to him and the emotion when he keeps getting chastised for his methods is incredibly apparent. Hoffman pulled off great frustration in the beginning when he thought Patch was cheating but eventually, when he realized his methods worked, he really touched well on the gentleness in persuading him to not give up.

However, while the acting is really good, the plot wasn’t. While it is loosely based on what Adams did and wanted to do, it really changed a lot of aspects of his life. For instance, Carin didn’t actually exist as she was a gender-flipped version of another friend of Adams who wasn’t killed. Adams also didn’t commit felonies, like practicing medicine without a license and convince the board that he wasn’t in the wrong.

It’s not a terrible movie, but with all the problems with the plot, it isn’t one of Williams’ best movies. 

Mulan

In 1998, Disney decided to try its hand at turning a Chinese poem into a feature length film. The resulting film, Mulan, was well received, but still didn’t make nearly as much money as its Renaissance predecessors. Starring Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, BD Wong, Donny Osmond, Harvey Fierstein, June Foray, Pat Morita, and George Takei, it made $304 million worldwide. It won several Annie Awards and was featured in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. But despite not being royalty by birth or marriage, Mulan part of the Disney Princess line. Jackie Chan also voiced Shang in the Chinese dub.

The Huns invade Imperial China, causing every family to receive a conscription order requiring one male from each household to serve in the army. Mulan (Wen) doesn’t want her aging veteran father to go to war again and disguises herself as a man to take his place.

This film could have been much shorter if you think about it. During “I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” there’s a point where Mulan is discharged. Which means she could have gone home, her father saved. But it looks like a dishonorable discharge, and since the Chinese culture is all about honor, she stayed to prove herself. Which is what defines Mulan’s character. She’s not only determined to show that she has what it takes, despite being a woman, but she’s also resourceful and quick thinking. Her character isn’t completely relatable, as not all of us can or would take someone else’s place in basic training or war and many of us would turn back if we were disgraced like she was. Mulan as a character succeeds because of that lack of relatability.

The film also has a lot of great comedic timing, but it’s hampered in part because of Eddie Murphy’s role as Mushu. It doesn’t really fit and stands out way too much. We had a lot of other characters played by Chinese actors, why couldn’t Disney have gotten someone like Jet Li? Donny Osmond providing Shang’s singing voice is fine because he was able to, or made to, sound like BD Wong.

The meeting between the ancestors is also quite interesting, showing how those we perceive to be wise can be complete fools. And having it play out like a meeting at the retirement home gone out of control makes it even better. However, there is a point where the scene goes on for just a little too long. But not enough to completely ruin it. George Takei does very well as the first ancestor.

The music is good too, but what possessed Disney to have the final song be a duet between 98^o and Stevie Wonder?

#8