Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1613 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-03-04
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.com
Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra star in this visually stunning metaphysical tale of life after death. Neurologist Chris and artist Annie had the perfect life until they lost their children in an auto accident; they're just starting to recover when Chris meets an untimely death himself. He's met by a messenger named Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and taken to his own personal afterlife--a freshly drawn world reminiscent of Annie's own artwork, still dripping and wet with paint. Meanwhile a depressed Annie takes her own life, compelling Chris to traverse heaven and hell to save Annie from an eternity of despair.

The multitextured visuals seem to have been created from a lost fairy tale. Heaven recalls the landscape paintings of Thomas Cole and Renaissance architecture complete with floating cherubs, while hell is a massive shipwreck, an upside-down cathedral overgrown with thorns and a sea of groaning faces popping out of the ground (one of those faces is German director Werner Herzog). Williams is the perfect actor to play against the imaginative computer-generated imagery--he himself is a human special effect. But the lack of chemistry between Williams and Sciorra is painfully apparent, and the flashback plot structure flattens the story's impact despite its deeply felt examinations of the heart and the spirit. Still, there's no denying Eugenio Zanetti's triumphant production design and the Oscar-winning special effects, which create a fully formed universe that is at once beautiful, eerie, and a unique example of movie magic. --Shannon Gee

From The New Yorker
Robin Williams gives his most cloying performance in this eighty-million-dollar acid-trip fantasy about the pursuit of love in the afterlife. The hyper-romantic script-pure drivel-is by the successful and overrated Ron Bass ("Rain Man," "Waiting to Exhale"), and his story about an accident victim's search for his dead wife's soul reeks of New Age sensitivity training. Though director Vincent Ward used his special-effects budget well-there are some stunning impressionistic moments-the film is as gooey and sticky as an overcooked marshmallow. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

This dream will exaust you and your senses
Before I wrote this, I read around a few of the other posted reviews here and at the IMDB,( Internet Movie Database ) and what I read surprised me. There are obvious religious arguements to be made in the absense of "God" in the afterlife, and after death having the abillity to continue to move our fate forward in the afterlife for a better end result. Anyway you slice it this movie will react with the viewer in a powerful way, and it will be different for everyboby. Example, I would feel much different viewing the loss of children perhaps if I wasn't a parent myself, and could agonize with the uncomprehensible loss of a child, for me events like that have impact. The loss of your own life in the middle of busy life events due to a split second tragedy, leaving those behind crazy for your loss...and the guilt you would feel if you could experience what your death did to the lives of the ones you leave behind. This film really is not supposed to be Heaven or Hell, just what momments of your own personal relationships and memories could best describe your own individual " forever " if you could take it all with you. I think Robin Williams and the whole cast is wonderful, viseral and heartbreaking and they will touch you and make you think, the artificial worlds they inhabit are nothing short of breathtaking. this movie is really an examination of the life of a couple and a family and where these lives end up forever when life on earth is done, and ultimately it's a wonderful conclusion. Very highly recomended.

My favrotie love story
This movie has incredible effects, wonderful acting and a beautiful story. It's a nice change from all those sappy, been-there-done-that romances. This is a beautiful and original movie about love conqueing all. And it doesn't just involve the love between the husband and wife, but also the love between the parents and the chidlren, and even the family dog. It uses wonderful images of both heaven and hell, and will make you wonder what each would be like for you. Two thumbs up.

The Afterlife Envisioned?
Robin Williams in a serious role? Could work.
Robin Williams with an emotionally unstable wife? Ironic.
Robin Williams dies and goes through heaven and hell? Cinematic gold.

Robin Williams plays Chris Nielsen, a doctor devoted to his artist wife, Annie, played by Annabella Sciorra. They're a loving couple that have experienced the heartbreak of losing their children in a car wreck. But when Chris is killed in a car crash as well, he must learn to move on and accept his death. He watches over his widow for the first few days after having died. But then he is transported into a "heaven" which he manifests, a beautiful world of paint inspired by his wife's art. His former mentor played by Cuba Gooding, Jr., who is also dead but not what he appears to be, guides him as he creates his own reality. But when Annie commits suicide Chris must journey into a dark netherworld to save her. There she has created her own afterlife, a "hell" to match her despair and pain. Chris enlists the aid of a tracker, played by Max von Sydow who is also dead and yet again not what he appears to be, who will help him find Annie. Along the way Chris is reunited with his children and learns that only through faith and vulnerability can one become strong enough to heal.

The film is directed by Vincent Ward and is a startling example of spiritual and psychological storytelling, even if the screenplay is convoluted at times. The film is based upon the book by Richard Matheson (I Am Legend). Visually the film is absolutely breathtaking and gives us for the first time in centuries, a truly original idea of what life after death may look like. What hurts the film is the awkward way the story unfolds through flashbacks. Some films can handle a non-linear story but the editor fails to set up a proper chronology before assembling this epic picture. However viewers should not be deterred by this minor annoyance. It's still worth seeing... again and again.