I just watched What Dreams May Come (1998) … and boy did I need to watch this movie again. I had forgotten how intense and poetic the text and the imagery are in this movie.
The text is of a rare quality in a movie of that scale, which makes it that much more enjoyable. It is the kind of text that reminds you what is really important in life, and if you can dig under the first layer of romantic quest of soulmates in the afterlife, it is a powerful tool to refocus away from what can become a dull daily routine.
As for the fantastic imagery… the major part of the movie is a succession of living paintings, from surrealistics to expressionists. There are so many details that it is difficult to take it all in with a single viewing.
I can only compare watching this living, breathing painted world to what I felt the first time I watched ‘Pleasantville’ : a brilliant expression of how something that could only exist in imagination can be translated on a movie screen.
This kind of visionary display is very different from showing dinosaurs or galaxies far far away. More than simply showing what can already be done with current visual effects, it hints at the kind of visions that are yet to come on screens.