robin williams , this time without a beard , returns to drama in this sloppy , sickly sweet fantasy with few redeeming features apart from the incredible effects . he plays chris nielsen , who meets annie ( annabella sciora ) and promptly marries her . they have two great kids , who sadly die in a car crash . just when it couldn't get any worse , chris gets killed in a car crash , and goes to heaven where he meets his guide albert ( gooding jnr . ) annie can't take the grief anymore , and kills herself . ( all sounding like good fun so far ? ) the 'penalty' for suicide is to go to hell , and chris goes on a mission to try and rescue her using the help of the traveller ( max von sydow . ) based on a novel by twilight zone writer richard matheson , what dreams may come is clunky , manufactured material doused with a extra load of sugar . this is the worse spielberg film spielberg never made . everything is wrong about this movie : the performances are forced , and the audiences fail to relate to any of the characters . williams puts on a convincing upset face , but that's all it is : a face . there's no emotion behind it . sciora's performance is lazy , and bogs down the whole film . she may look pretty , but she can't act . max von sydow is o . k as the traveller , if nothing special . cuba gooding jnr , thankfully , adds some bounce to his performance , and is certainly the best performer in the film . it's a shame that his character is so flat and 2-d , and offers no room for improvement . all the performers have to work with a soppy script , that tries it's best to get some emotion going , but never takes off the ground . there are _some_ scenes which could be real heartwarmers , but the faceless characters don't help to get anything out of the performers . while films like e . t used great actors , music and direction to pull of a masterful heart-tugging scene , what dreams may come is haphazard , expecting the emotion to come out of the scene automatically . instead , it's all rather boring . sure , the music is pretty ( by michael kamen ) and the cinematography isn't bad ( by eduardo serra ) but there's something lacking . the script doesn't help , filled with hopeless romantic clichés , and dud speeches . richard matheson can write some awesome science fiction stories , sadly this novel would look embarrassed in a bargain bin , let alone being converted into a $70 million vehicle for robin williams . despite being set in heaven , what dreams may come is mightily depressing . the film rushes a happy ending , but everything before this is very , very sad and black , which just adds to make the ending even more hopeless and stupid . but there's one redeeming feature about this failure of a movie : the special effects . heaven and hell are truly incredible places , and the actors fit perfectly with the virtual sets . but despite this , what dreams may come , proves to be nothing but the biggest disappointment of 1998 . instead of raising questions about existence , it raises boredom . sadly , i recommend you give this film a miss . better luck next time , robin . 
