The Flick Filosopher responds:
Respectfully (no pun intended), I think you need to take a good look at some real acting before nominating Charlize Theron for an Oscar. She's very pretty, and good at screaming, but that doesn't make her an actress of any stripe...
And I found Devil's Advocate completely unscary -- I wasn't entertained in the least.
As always, thanks for your comments.

gwells@suffolk.lib.ny.us writes:
In your review of Simon Birch you bring up the "hating God" syndrome... a subject I have sort of written on... Anyhooooow, the basic answer of theodicy (the study of "explaining God to people") says that God's only choice was Yes or No, he/she cannot change where deer will be when a bus comes by; only can decide whether the universe exists. And maybe have some small tampering with things through compassion and heroism in the hearts of sentient beings...
George Wells

The Flick Filosopher responds:
Ah, but I was only speaking of the God that features in Simon Birch -- not a general philosophy of God. If Simon Birch's God could arrange to have Simon born the way he was, arrange to have Simon on that bus when he was, then that God sure as heck could have done something about that deer. It mystifies me how a huge series of mishaps inspires people to believe in God, as it did for Joe.
It's like when some trailer park gets demolished in Oklahoma, and the dazed survivors wander around, homeless, their only possessions the clothes on their backs, and proclaim that God was watching over them. My feeling is, If your God is taking such a personal interest in you and cares that deeply for you, why did he let that tornado hit you?

writer@ime.net writes:
I am glad [What Dreams May Come] had some meaning for you, I would hope though that as a professional critic, you can look beyond your own personal needs and think for a moment about how this movie might effect those whose lives have been touched by suicide.
Now I am not going to go into a long harangue about how movies grossly misrepresent the mentally ill, though one could write an entire book on the subject.
I will only point out a few things in this respect.
It is clear, in the movie, from Cuba Gooding Jr's character, that no suicidal person has ever escaped the grip of Hell, that they are far too self absorbed to realize they are dead.
This sentiment alone is an egregiously insensitive point of view. It reinforces the hideous stereotype that mentally ill people, suicidal people in particular, bring their problems on themselves and if they would just snap out of it they could glide around Heaven with all the normal healthy people and if they can't then they get what they deserve.
Rather than address the reality which is that mental illness in general and suicide in particular, is the result of a confluence of biochemistry, genetics, environment and a whole host of social antecedents that do not yield to facile discussion much less bad movie making.
If you think I am over reacting to this subtext in the movie, I suggest you go up to a bereaved person who has lost a loved one to suicide and tell them the deceased is now rotting in Hell and well, they deserve it anyway because they just won't wake up and smell salvation.
Then duck quickly to avoid their round house right headed for your nose.
The movie implies that the only thing a person who has suffered a lifetime of loneliness and isolation really deserves is an eternity of loneliness and isolation.
And I don't think that this is a movie that should be recommended to just anyone. Those who have survived suicide will get to relive not only their own horrors, but on top of that they can enjoy the Technicolor validation of Hollywood, that their worst fears about the departed are true.
Imagine the survivor of a suicide watching Robin Williams walk on the faces of the damned. The survivor can once again face the belief that their husband or wife, parent or child, lover or friend is now in the ultimate pit of despair and they as survivors can relive the guilt of not being able to do anything about it.
By doing this the movie helps to undermine their faith and trust in a loving God who can reach out and heal even the darkest and most despondent of people.
The repulsive overtones in What Dreams May Come make it not just erroneous but destructive as well.
I don't really blame the average person for being so dazzled by the cinematic pyrotechnics that they fail to see that they are being sold a bill of goods, but I had hoped that a professional critic would not be so easily bamboozled.
Now I have nothing against a Hollywood movie that wants to offer a warm fuzzy sentimental spirituality, in place of real religion, but for Heaven's Sake, I wish they would leave depressed suicidal people and their loved ones alone.
They've suffered enough.
And if you were thinking of saying something like, Well Christians teach that suicide is a one-way ticket to hell, I would refer you to the following:

"We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives." -- Catechism for the Catholic Church, Benzinger Publishing, 1995. Parg. 2283.

The Flick Filosopher responds:
Well, I guess my prediction that religious folks would see religious messages in this film is turning out to be accurate.
It seemed to me that the point of the film is that the suicides can't forgive themselves, not that they are mentally ill -- though I suppose that mental illness is relative. Are people who commit suicide necessarily mentally ill?
I'm sorry if you've lost someone to suicide, but IT'S JUST A MOVIE. And the film never suggests that those in Hell deserve to be there, merely that they are there. Big difference.
I personally don't believe in heaven or hell, though I've never been insensitive enough to tell a bereaved person (except myself) that a loved one was merely rotting in the ground.
The fact that your God is absent from What Dreams May Come does not automatically make it a bad movie. You may not enjoy it -- that is your right. But it's not Hollywood's responsibility to validate and promote your religion. Perhaps you shouldn't consider this a Christian film.
What makes you think that a "professional critic" shares your beliefs in God, religion, or the afterlife? This film is total fantasy, as far as I'm concerned. When you die, that's it. The end. No pretty afterlife of any kind.
Thank you for writing. I'm sorry if you've been touched by suicide, but it's your responsibility to protect yourself from things that might upset you, and not Hollywood's.

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