It has been 25 years since I saw this Robin Williams film at the movie theatre and, in fact, "What Dreams May Come" is the first movie I ever saw in a theatre. Hence, I thought I would talk about it.
First, a comparison of the picture with the Richard Matheson novel.
The movie scores over the book in several ways.
First, Chris's being a doctor is much more interesting and a lot less insular than his being a writer.
His getting in a car accident while rushing to a dinner date with his wife to which he is already late is also much more interesting than wrecking his vehicle while driving home from the movies.
The film's dispensing with all the stuff between Chris's death and his arrival in Heaven is also welcome.
The movie also provides a much fuller and more engaging description of how Chris and Annie met.
On the side of the novel, its depiction of Hell is much more vivid and interesting and, from what I remember of the movie, the book's conclusion is more satisfying.
Now to my thoughts on this story from a Christian perspective.
The damnable heresy of Matheson's and the filmaker's work is that Heaven and Hell, in truth, are not whatever you make them to be, essentially spending eternity in the actualized mental paradise you've created for yourself or being forever trapped in the prison your own mind has made.
Human beings were created by an omnipotent and omniscient God who knows us literally infinitely better than we know ourselves. Heaven isn't a perpetual church service where we sit on clouds playing harps forever and ever, but neither is it the shallow, self-absorbed and superficial existence "What Dreams May Come" portrays. God knows what we love and enjoy as humans and together His followers will have an existence that's beyond anything of which we could ever dream. Psalm 16 11
Similarly, God knows what the worst thing for human beings is, and to be eternally sentenced to a lake of burning fire is something no one will like or be able to get out of. Acts 2 38
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