What Dreams May Come
The film, What Dreams May Come, shows the life after death and how the soul and spirit continue after the physical journey of an individual has ended. The protagonist Chris Nielsen (Robin Williams) loses his two children in a car crash and four years later he too faces a similar fate. Chris experiences a second life somewhat and undergoes an imaginative journey in heaven and undergoes a speculative transition. The movie illustrates the contrasts between heaven and hell and how the individual’s in each place experience different imaginative journeys.
The audience undergoes imaginative journey and their perceptions are formed from Chris’s spiritual journey. His death is the catalyst for his imaginative journey, which sends the protagonist to heaven. His utopia appears to be in one of his wife’s painting which is full of colour. This makes the audience suspend their disbelief however the audience knows the place is imaginary when Chris squeezes a flower a spurt of red covers his hand.
Chris cannot comprehend with his death and emotionally feels alive, “I still exist”. He views his funeral as a spirit and a guardian angel guides him through these obstacles. The audience knows that Chris is undergoing a journey in the mind and that “reality is over. His heaven is “a whole world of imagination” and the facial expression and visual features show his emotional feelings. After viewing his funeral, his figure is seen going smaller and running towards the light, which symbolises heaven and the commencement of his journey. He experiences sadness after seeing his wife in turmoil and initially is isolated until finding his dog in heaven as well. His wife commits suicide and does not fulfil the, “natural order to journey” and as a result goes to hell.
The image of hell vs. heaven is juxtaposed where hell is full of darkness and ghouls underwater which distorts the freshness of heaven, full of cheerful music and pure rivers...
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