A Dream within a Dream

To die,—to sleep;—
To sleep: perchance to dream:—ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

I recently watched the movie What Dreams May Come (USA, 1998) which I discovered because I was looking up the filmography of Max Von Sydow. I really have no memory of this film coming to the theatres. I'm guessing that it flopped because the director hasn't really done anything since.

It's a story about what happens to a family after death, with a lot of discussion about loss and grieving.

The plot is a bit saccharine, but it was a visually wonderful film. The scenes of Robin Williams' heaven (everyone gets their own, it seems) are fabulous. And the boats in the Venice-like halls of a giant library. And hell. Beautiful imagery.

It's also a film that makes me wonder about the official religion of Hollywood. It just seems like every Hollywood film has a very similar picture of the afterlife: kinda Christian with a heaven and a hell. But also with relatively lax entrance requriements for heaven. And there's usually a reincarnation option. Reincarnation, I guess, has much more story potential than other forms of afterlife. (And Defending Your Life remains one of my favourites among movies of this ilk.