Chris Neilson dies to find himself in a heaven more amazing than he could have ever dreamed of. There is one thing missing: his wife. After he dies, his wife, Annie killed herself and went to hell. Chris decides to risk eternity in hades for the small chance that he will be able to bring her back to heaven.
Women's pain as cinema. Exploration of psychological pain, complexity of "suicide". Subject matter handled delicately.
Not physically "brutalized", but the movie frequently returns to show the wife in the middle of processing extremely brutal psychological torment as she grieves the sudden deaths of her family members.
Live rabbit was used during filming (one scene only, lifted/carried by actor) no animals were reported as harmed during their participation in the movie.
A huge, hairy spider crawling on someone's hand to the person's horror. ----- SPOILER ---- SPOILER ----- SPOILER ----- It happens when Annie and Christy are together in Hell, around 1h 25m in (appr. 27 minutes and 50 seconds left), immediately after the line "... and... umm ... some of my paintings, the ones I have to work on", and lasts only a few seconds. Less than 10, I think.
Tons of people in Hell experience what I'd consider endless torture, but it's not inflicted on them by others. It's more like torturous circumstances caused by their own minds (like being buried in mud for all eternity, only their faces above the surface, and being trapped in extremely bleak surroundings, suffering perpetual despair).
Yes, but in the least scary and most beautiful way. It's a tender and loving ghost who looks, sounds and behaves exactly like a normal living person and tries to comfort a lonely, grieving loved one. There are no creepy ghosts standing in the dark staring at someone, moving objects invisibly, or anything like that. I'm extremely scared of ghosts (I usually look up this very trigger on doesthedogdie), and I found these scenes nothing but heartwarming ... and, well, heartbreaking, too.
Yes, a person stays in a mental institution for what appears to be rather a long time, because she had a mental breakdown after a personal tragedy. There are several scenes in the place. We see no doctors/nurses, other patients or interiors; we only see her in a garden/park being visited by a loved one, but it's as clear from their conversations that she's in a mental institution - and we see a relatively fresh scar from a long cut on the inside of her wrist.
There's a brief scene showing a badly injured person in a hospital bed from above. To avoid the scene, skip forward from when there's 1 hour, 40 minutes and 18 seconds left of the movie (just after Christy says "Yeah, I had a bad piece of fish before bed" after the accident) to when there's 1 hour, 39 minutes and 55 seconds left. (The scene starts around 13m 20s in, but I watched the movie on Netflix, and it shows the remaining time precisely, while the passed time is hard to pin down precisely.)
We don't see any injections, nor do we actually see needles or syringes, but there's a brief hospital scene in which a person has one or more drops, i.e. thin tubes have been inserted into the veins in his hand(s?) with syringes and are still there, kept in place with plasters/band-aids. We don't see them close-up, though, and, again, the scene is brief. Skip about 25 seconds forward from around 13m 20 s (appr. 1 hour and 40 minutes left) to avoid the hospital scene.
First we see a scar from a long cut to the wrist (which may or may not have been a suicide attempt). Later on, a person actually commits suicide (we don't know how).
There's sorrow, worry, depression, confusion, mental breakdown, all for very understandable and concrete reasons ... but I wouldn't say there are anxiety attacks.
Yes, and in the movie, people who have committed suicide end up in a kind of hell - not as a punishment, according to a supposed expert of the afterlife, but as an inevitable result of their own thoughts/feelings.
----- SPOILER ---- There's a pretty long scene in Hell showing a large number of living (well, technically dead, but acting alive) people buried in mud very close together, only their faces above the surface.
There's lightning and flickering lights from the lightning when Christy and Albert are standing talking in the dream house in the sunset - specifically around 55m 50s in (appr. 57 minutes and 35 seconds left), just after the line "The real Hell is your life gone wrong". It goes on for around two minutes. Unfortunately, you'll miss some somewhat important lines about the consequences of suicide if you skip it.
SPOILER Childbirth is depicted ONLY in the "Alternative Ending". Ending the movie with intense shifting scenes of childbirth in two separate hospitals, meant to symbolize both main characters experiencing rebirth.
The ages of the adult characters are never disclosed.
Some viewers will pick up on the noticeable age difference (9 years) between the two main characters who are love interests. During the time of production Robin Williams was 46-47 years old and Annabella Sciorra was 35-36 years old.
Depictions of physical intimacy (kissing, hugging, straddling) between the two are used sparingly and there is reoccurring theme of limited physical touch (hand grazing, near kiss).
ENDING SPOILER The characters are suggested to have chosen to reincarnate and meet each other again. It is suggested that the characters have reincarnated as the young children seen at the end of the movie (the male child character appear to be older, both children appear to be under 10 years old)
Yes, and with tragic consequences. There are two car accidents, but the first one we only hear about. We see the second one, which happens around 12 minutes into the movie (appr. 1 hour and 41 minutes left), when Christy is driving in the rain, about to go through a tunnel. Note that this is actually a two-part accident, two crashes a few seconds apart, so don't be fooled by the pause between them. To avoid seeing both crashes, skip to when we switch to a white screen, which brings us to a brief scene showing the victim in a hospital bed. To avoid the hospital scene, too, skip all the way to 13m 45s (appr. 1 hour and 40 minutes left).