On that day I had just such a feeling when the gong was struck. However, this time, the gong signaled the uncompromising moment when death comes: it heralded a cinematic journey into the next world. On the cinema's huge screen appeared one of my favorite actors, Robin Williams. I have always thought that he is perfectly suited for these sorts of spiritual films. His warm and saintly portrayal of the children's doctor 'Patch Adams' comes to mind as an example. Why does an actor choose projects like these to be in? I think there has to be a reason, some sort of connection at a deeper level. I can't remember the names of the other actors and actresses. Unfortunately I am never good at memorizing names, although I wish I could (and didn't have to spend time looking them up!).

The story centers on a family: the parents, Chris (Robin Williams) and Annie have two children, a boy and a girl. Chris is a doctor, whilst Annie is a busy and successful artist, with her own gallery. The film opens with mum and dad sending the kids to school by car. This everyday moment of family separation then catapults into tragedy as the car they are traveling in is destroyed in a horrific accident. Their children, the centre of their life, are brutally and permanently ripped from them. 

In church, at the funeral, lie two wooden coffins in the place of their children. Both parents are obviously in torment, but Chris's love for his wife is such that he hides his pain and sadness from her. When he speaks to the congregation, Chris says that Annie and he remain connected to their children and can clearly envisage their grown-up years. They also have poignant memories from the past. The children's first encounter with death came when their family pet, a Dalmation, was passing away. The young girl cried next to the dog and asked her mother, "Does she have to die?" Annie had explained that the dog was getting very old and suffering, and that she was only going to move on to a new dimension. There is a place that everyone will go to, one day . . .

Time passes. Annie and Chris continue with their jobs and try to pick up the pieces of their lives. Annie, though, finds it particularly difficult and never seems happy again. And then a second tragedy happens.

Chris is driving his car and enters a tunnel. A few car-lengths ahead of him there has been an accident and the road is blocked. Chris gets out of his car and runs forward to give medical assistance to the injured people. At that moment another car enters the tunnel, going at high speed. The driver never sees the stationary cars in his way until too late. He hits them hard and his car flies through the air. It comes down on top of Chris and kills him outright. The film stops at that sudden and intense moment. And then a second film starts . . . just like an eternal cycle where every ending triggers a new beginning.

I really loved this transition in the film. Now there are sounds and whispers in the background. There is another being, or entity, who knows Chris is there, but apart from that, no-one else. We watch the picture with Chris's eyes now. He has got different, dream-like, vision. The being next to Chris tells him that he has died and explains a lot of things about the next world. His voice is very calm, but we still can't see him clearly.

Now we see another funeral. Chris has the weird sensation of looking down at his own coffin. Annie is crying very quietly. Chris reaches down to touch his wife's face and tries very hard to make her feel him. Annie is aware of his presence but can't fully understand what it means.

Now the scene changes very fast. Chris is in the next world but also connected to this world, too. He is struggling to adapt to this enormous change in his circumstances. All of a sudden he finds himself stuck in some sort of sticky mud. His visual perception intensifies to a hallucinatory state and he feels enraptured by the extraordinary colours around him. As he is trying to free his arms and legs from the sticky, colourful mud, he sees his dog, the Dalmation, running towards him. It's obvious, now, where Chris is – and he's very happy here. There is an powerful mood in the film at this point that we have all felt: leaving dearly loved friends behind us, but moving on to meet new experiences and adventures.

Coming to the top of a hill, he hears the same voice that helped him at his funeral – his spiritual guide. It is that of a black man, who is walking towards him across the sea. He starts to explain the rules of this new dimension to Chris and it's not long before Chris learns to fly and walk on the sea like him. When he looks up at the sky, Chris sees a bird drawn there.  He asks his guide if it is possible to make it fly and his guide tells him that it is. Almost immediately the bird starts to fly but then it falters in the sky and crashes.  From this he learns that the main thing to be able to do in this place is to take control of your own thoughts, because everything is controlled by them.

In time, things settle down and Chris begins to think about his beloved wife again. He feels very uncomfortable being in peace when her situation is so much the opposite. His thoughts start going back to the time when they first met when suddenly he finds his children's toys on the beach. Unfortunately, he is told, it is impossible to see his children yet. The time is not right.

We begin to understand now the strength of Chris's connection to his wife. Whatever else happens, he tells himself, he should not be dead to Annie. He goes back home and finds that she is totally broken and destroyed. She has changed a lot and hardly looks like the woman he used to know. She is stricken with terrible sadness, loneliness and the utter conviction that death is the end of everything.  Chris grabs his wife's pen and, although she tries to resist, he forces her to write, "He does exist".

New turmoil erupts in the film at this point. When Annie composes herself and reads what's written on the paper, she flips out. In her mind, she has lost all the people she ever loved and they don't exist anymore. She thinks she is going crazy. Chris is shocked when he sees this reaction. He tries to tell her to calm down, but of course she can't hear him. When she starts to injure herself, he realizes his mistake and returns to the other world.

Chris visits a new place where other dead people live, with his guide. It seems that Chris's connection to the physical world has been cut and he is ready to experience more things in the next dimension. Now a lady takes over the duties of his black guide. The conversation they had together was very interesting for me. Traveling in a gondola, she tells him about this world and explains that everything he sees is connected to his thoughts. Suddenly, he finds himself in his daughter's room. He finds there a three-dimensional story book. His daughter says that heaven must be like this. Then his spiritual guide explains why her name is Leona. It is because, years earlier, Chris saw the name Leona written on an air hostess's identity tag. After this realization, another connection is made and the guide he had been talking to turns into his daughter. Again the film shows us the power and effect of true understanding. But despite the fact that he has found his daughter, Chris still thinks his son is out of reach.

We are at the top of the hill again . . . Chris has a bird's eye view of the whole, beautiful land. On the top of the hill is remarkable tree, with very shiny leaves. Chris's black angel helps him to understand how meaningful that tree is because it is the same one that Annie had been drawing in her painting. Chris has been living in Annie's picture. However, as we are thinking about this pleasant vision, images of a harsher reality start to intrude. Annie begins to obliterate what she has done before with black paint; and, from Chris's perspective, all the leaves are blown from the tree by a cruel wind. This dark vision is the consequence of Annie's suicide. The tree of love was destroyed by his wife's scream.

When Chris understands the nature of her death, and the negative consequences of that suicide, he knows she can not be together with him and their children. Another hard time starts for him, for Annie has gone to a hell of her own making. However, his bond to her is so great that he decides to try and rescue her from that place.

I think this is another strong part of the film. Even a person who is in heaven can help another who doesn't have that comfort, just by talking. At a certain point another soul guides Chris and he comes to understand that the black man that was with him from the beginning was actually his son.

Hell is portrayed as a cold, lonely place full of fear and swathed in darkness. Screams fill the air. In this place the people are either crowded inescapably on top of each other, submerged in dark water or in a constant state of war with one another. Their desperation is so intense that many of them beg help from Chris and some try to fool him that he is a relative of theirs and that he must rescue them. At last, and with the help of his new guide, he is able to reach his wife. He finds her in her own prison. She is living in their old family home, but it is a place in ruins. Before Chris enters, his guide warns him that he mustn't stay long or else he too may become trapped in the nightmare and she will not recognize him.

The house is desolate. Everything is in a state of collapse. A figure sitting down by the pool is Annie. She is totally lost. Just as his guide warned him, she doesn't recognize her husband. When he starts talking to her she becomes terrified by a spider, her greatest phobia, and she refuses to acknowledge him. The only way he can have any effect on her is when he starts describing the conversations he had with her at the hospital after they lost their children in the traffic accident. In returning to those dialogues we can see Chris thanking her for being his life partner, but she can only cope by pushing him away and speaking of divorce. Those conversations were the pivotal part of their life together: at that time in her life Annie was cured of her morbid grief by her husband's love. Reminding her of them transpires to be the turning point for a second time and Annie's hell slowly transforms into Chris's heaven.

As we approach the end of the film Annie and Chris decide to be reborn together again. The scene changes and we see two children, a boy and a girl, playing on the beach. The boy gives a flower to the girl...

On reflection, I found that all the feelings this film tried to convey were already in the back of my mind. In life nothing is endless. Nothing happens without a cause, nothing happens without a consequence. The most important and powerful feeling is love. Whatever the terrible situations we face in the world, we can change them from hell to heaven with love. All of us are born with a role to play. We are affected by our friends, families and everything in the world, and, by return, we affect all of them, too. But beyond the roles we play in life, we  have a soul which is eternal. Inside us we combine good and bad. We are a mixture of everything.