YMMV / What Dreams May Come

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • One child's Batman Gambit to save his mom from Hell.
  • Did Chris Nielsen's attempts to communicate with the living after death do more harm than good? Why didn't his Spirit Advisor warn him about the dangers of making contact with the living? Would this make Chris and his advisor slightly responsible for Annie's suicide? However, it was shown that Annie was clinically depressed and tried to kill herself at the threat of a divorce, so her children and her husband being killed sent her over the edge.
• Awesome Music: Michael Kamen is at his best here.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Suicide victims end up in a Self-Inflicted Hell? One hopes that's not really true, given Robin Williams' and Mary Kay Bergman’s suicide.
  • The whole movie has become this, although the redemption of the suicidal character in the film may help ease the pain of grief-stricken viewers. Seeing Williams discuss the movie one year prior to his death is also unsettling, especially as he mentions that it was a difficult experience "dealing with death and being in hell literally".
  • When Chris is with his dog Katie and comes across Albert Lewis, who is standing in the water, Chris recognizes him in his youth. Albert exclaims, "You last saw me when I was 63 stretched out on a cardiac ward... who wants to be 63 throughout eternity?!" Robin Williams passed away at age 63.
• Tear Jerker:
  • A huge portion of the film, really. Every scene of Annie after the deaths of the children is her unhappy. Chris is holding it together just for her. His despair as he's unable to be with either of them in Heaven is palpable. And the entire Hell scene.
  • Chris is a bit saddened to hear that Annie killed herself, but then he starts taking solace in the fact that she won't be apart from him for much longer, and Albert, who has given the news, is desperately trying to stop Chris from fantasizing about an imminent happy reunion. It hits even harder when you learn that his son Ian was wearing the guise of Albert the whole time, meaning Ian had to inform his own father of his mother's death, and then break the news that she went to Hell as a result.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Chris and Annie's daughter, Marie, has a very androgynous appearance. It's quite possible to mistake her for a boy.
• Vindicated by History: The film didn't do that great in the box office when it first came out, and certainly wasn't a film that would come to anyone's mind when they think of Robin Williams. In 2014, it rose to the top of the charts on iTunes and Amazon. Sadly, the main reason for this is because of Robin Williams's own passing, which caused fans to turn to this movie for comfort due to its themes of love and sacrifice.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Such a gorgeous movie! It even won the Visual Effects Academy Award over the Scenery Gorn of Armageddon (1998) and the intricate animatronics of Mighty Joe Young.

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