When you watch the previews before a film starts, you get a couple of minutes to decide if you're going to want to spend money on another movie. Some previews tell you too much, some tell you a complete lie, and some get you interested, but don't spoil the show.

What Dreams May Come is one film where, because of the preview, we all wanted to see Robin Williams sliding around inside a painting, but the film delivered much more. Williams plays a devoted husband killed while trying to help an auto accident victim. After death, he must learn how to deal with not being alive, and not being with his wife. Through his eyes, we see how wonderful the afterlife might be.

That's the sizzle. The steak is the love story. Williams plays, as I said, a very devoted husband. He's still madly in love. When his wife commits suicide, his love is tested by fear of going to hell to get her and maybe not getting back out.

This film shines in so many ways. All of those computer special-effects wizards were asked to take a holiday from spaceships and dinosaurs to create the painting Williams wakes up in. Plot comes together with acting, and what we receive is what Hollywood does best -- complete rapture. You're going to buy into this movie, because everyone has done their job well, and because secretly, you're going to hope the afterlife is really like this.

No Suction!

Film Facts

Cast
• Robin Williams
• Cuba Gooding Jr.
• Annabella Sciorra
• Max von Sydow
• Jessica Brooks Grant
• Josh Paddock
• Rosalind Chao
• Werner Herzog
• Lucinda Jenney

Directed by Vincent Ward

Released in 1998

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewed by Mongo