Rating: 
Summary: A tragic love story you'll never forget
Review: Writer-director Keith Gordon's "Waking the Dead" caught me off guard and - dare I say it? - moved me to tears. But what's almost as sad as the movie itself is that this 1999 release - which works beautifully as both a tragic love story and a psychological thriller - slipped in and out of theaters virtually unnoticed.Based on the novel by Scott Spencer, the film opens in 1972, where we meet Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup), a young U.S. Coast Guard officer with big political ambitions. He meets Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly), a secretary and political activist who works at his hippie brother's New York publishing house, and the two are smitten right away. But tragedy strikes ... Without giving too much away, I will say that "Waking the Dead" cuts back and forth between the early '70s and the early '80s, producing a subjective, stream-of-consciousness narrative that manages to be compelling instead of confusing. Also, I liked the use of color and lighting to visually differentiate between the '70s scenes (warm earth tones) and the '80s scenes (cold, dark colors). But unlike "The Matrix" and "Memento," which used subjective narrative to play head games with the audience as its central gimmick, "Waking the Dead" is after bigger game. The ambiguity surrounding Sarah underscores how deeply her memory haunts Fielding, the toll it has taken on his mental state, and how deeply they love each other, despite the cruel blow fate has dealt them. The soundtrack also features lovely songs by Joni Mitchell ("A Case of You"), Lori Carson ("Snow Come Down") and Peter Gabriel ("Mercy Street"); alas, no soundtrack CD was ever made. The DVD also includes 45 minutes of deleted scenes, including a brief but engaging performance by Ed Harris, whose character only appeared onscreen (in TV footage, no less) for about 10 seconds in the final cut. Just make sure you have a box of tissues and a wastebasket handy before you push "play." You have been warned.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and heart wrenching, Crudup is incredible
Review: Billy Crudup (Big Fish) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) give, in my opinion, the best performances of their careers in this surprisingly haunting, powerful, and heart wrenching film. Waking the Dead tells the story of Fielding Pierce (Crudup), a congress hopeful who years earlier lost his true love Sarah (Conelly) in Chile. Throughout the entirity of the movie, the film flashes back and fourth in time as we see how the two meet, fall in love, and long for each other, until the tragedy which changes Fielding forever. Crudup is incredible, words alone can't describe how good this guy is in this role. After watching this for the first time, I can honestly say that he was robbed out of even an Oscar nomination. The way the film shifts back and fourth through time could have led to disastrous results, but it is handled exceptionally well by director Keith Gordon who pulls exceptional performances from the two leads. All in all, consider Waking the Dead a must see.
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking . . .
Review: One of the few movies that caused me to burst into tears and weep like a baby. Losing someone you dearly love is rough and if you have experienced that this might be a tough movie to get through.
Rating:
Summary: Wake Up Call
Review: This film was a genuinely personal experience for me. Unpretentious and devoid of fictitious sentimentality. I found this to be the most down-to-earth love story I have ever seen. To state that the movie, for me, was a moving experience, would be a gross understatement. One of the very finest displays of acting ever produced. The main characters exude stunning love chemistry. This is a story of destiny. The power of destiny over insurmountable odds, even that of true love. I consider this approach to love, very true to life. Some of you will not be able to relate, and some of you will. For some of you, like myself, it will be as if you are seeing you life in front of you. This film can be truly powerful, and it depends on the viewer and where they are coming from. The only thing I can recommend is to see for yourself. This is not the type of movie that you can read a review and make a decision on. As you will note, there are many reviewers that were affected by this film. For me, this film was a ride through a lifetime of emotion, incredibly powerful.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful and Haunting Love Story
Review: Have you ever been close to someone whose died, and in the years to come you'd swear you spotted the face of person in the crowd as you were getting on with your life? If so, then this film will touch you even more than you realize. This film will haunt me for a long time...and for the record, I believe you'll find that in the film, Sarah is killed along with the two Chilian activists (she's helped rescue-which you see in a flashback) in the states, not in Chili, as some of the other reviewers mention. Sorry! I'm a stickler for details... However, the acting is just amazing- especially by both Jennifer Connelly and Billy Crudup. You completely feel their characters love, pain, frustrations and fears for and with each other. I'm still haunted by the ending. I'm pretty sure I know what really happened, but still, you can't help wondering if what you hoped had really happened, did. This film is a testament to such a deep true love, despite our beliefs and differences and against all odds, and the sacrifices we must make in life and to those we love. It also makes you realize that life is so fleeting...and you don't want to ever leave someone you love on a bad note, because it may be the last time you see them...The song played in during the final credits (as well as near the end of the film) is especially beautiful, and makes the movie even more of an emotional tear jerker. I highly recommend this movie with a big box of tissues- a 3 hanky movie!
Rating:
Summary: exquisitely heartbreaking
Review: i find resonance with this movie. let's put politics aside. i find this movie beautifully and powerfully acted by both jennifer connelly and billy crudup. their pain and their happiness is a wave of emotion seldom seen on the screen anymore. i was truly taken and i cannot say that about many movies i have seen in my life. i rented it on a whim because i never had heard of it before. i am so lucky that i did. i find it a solid and sultry breath of thick air- life invigorating- an idealists and realists movie balancing on a fulcrum of believability. its two hours of antidote in a world sick with cynicism.
Rating: 
Summary: Fielding Pierce runs for Congress haunted by his dead love
Review: Things get a little too cute at the end of "Waking the Dead," and while I appreciate the idea of leaving up what "really" happened to the audience, I do not think that this was the film was the one in which to try this particular trick. After all, this movie is not a ghost story, even though the main character is haunted by the dead woman that he loved, but a film that mixes romance and politics to the point where the film's big question really matters and should have been answered more directly. In 1982 a stunned Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup) learns form the evening news that the woman he loves, Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connely) has been killed by a car bomb attack because of her involvement in opposing the corrupt government of Chile and U.S. involvement. We then go back to see how they first met, when he was serving in the Coast Guard, to avoid going to Vietnam, and she was the secretary for his brother, who is running some sort of counter culture magazine. He longs for a career in politics and she wants to bring down the system. Yet when Fielding says he wants to be president some day, she smiles because he clearly means it. These two characters from Scott Spencer's novel are politically polarized and these differences only grow as the two fall in love. They take turns accompanying each other to important social functions at which the other one become an embarrassment, before Sarah goes off and gets killed for her beliefs. Ten years later Fielding is given the opportunity to run in a special election for a seat in the U.S. Congress, as the handpicked choice of the governor and his chief political hack (Hal Holbrook). This is the first step to what Fielding has wanted his entire life, only Sarah sees it as a betrayal. True, Sarah has been dead ten years at this point, but that does not stop Fielding from first hearing and then seeing her. Is Fielding going insane, is he being haunted, or is this some sort of sick game? Good question, but do not ask me the answer because I watched the movie. It is hard to spoil a movie when you are not sure what really happened at the end, although I could hazard a guess. Ultimately, the politics clashes between Fielding and Sarah are more interesting than their romance. You have to wonder how their relationship would have ended if she had not died, because sooner or later one of them would have had to blink. One of the strengths of "Waking the Dead" is that both of them are right and you think that if only they could find a way to work together great things could happen. "Waking the Dead" is one of those titles that has a double meaning, for it applies to Fielding as much as it does to Sarah. That sense of ambiguity pervades Keith Gordon's 2000 film and certainly explains why the ending is so open to interpretation. But for me it does not quite work in the end, although Fielding's scene in his Congressional office works much better than his dinner with his family. Still, this is an interesting film for those who like to see film that try to play with an audience's mind (and which should be avoid like the plague by those who did enjoy "Fight Club" or "Memento").
Rating:
Summary: QUESTION ... PLEASE RATE QUALITY OF DVD EDITIONS
Review: IT WOULD BE SO HELPFUL IF REVIEWERS WOULD BE SURE TO RATE THE QUALITY OF THE VIDEO AND SOUND OF THE STUDIO VERSION OF THE DVD THEY ARE REVIEWING. SOME STUDIOS DO NOT PRODUCE GOOD CLEAR VIDEO AND GOOD CLEAR SOUND, SOME DO A BEAUTIFUL JOB. PLEASE JUST ADD AN ADDITIONAL LINE TO ALL YOUR REVIEWS IT WOULD BE SO MUCH APPRECIATED BY SO MANY OF US. WE COULD THEN PURCHASE THE DVD WITH THE BEST AUDIO AND VISUAL AND THEREFORE APPRECIATE THE MOVIE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT.
Rating:
Summary: "Words support like bone"
Review: Both Jennifer Connely and Billy Crudup shine in this heart-wrenching film about lost love. I was particularly moved by Billy Crudup's amazing performance. It was filled with anger and confusion, longing and despair, but ultimately hope. His acting here is as good as any actor could possibly attempt; some of his scenes are so intense that they seem out of place with the rest of the movie, and only Jennifer Connelly ever keeps up with him. The remaining scenes show him numb with the loss of his true love. His performance is truly remarkable. There is also a "sex" scene between Jennifer and Billy that was pulled off so convincingly that it looked as though they actually were making love. The intensity they both bring to that scene is genuinely amazing. There is also another montage of scenes that takes place late in the film with the Peter Gabriel song "Mercy Street" played in full that is so perfectly placed it seemed as thought the song were written specifically for this film. Another remarkable moment. The pace is deliberately slow, the plot jumps back and forth in time, and some of the scenes seem staged for the benefit of Billy Crudup, but overall this is a moving experience. The writing is also excellent but sounds more like a play than a screenplay. However, this is a landmark event for Billy Crudup, and a completely different character than Russell Hammond in the film "Almost Famous." If you love great acting, look no further than this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: It resonates in the memory, but falls shy of its mark
Review: What an ambitious confluence of love, loss, devotion, idealism, insanity, and remembrance. Billy Crudup plays the political aspirant Fielding Pierce, and he brings to light yet another screen character with the radiance of a solar flare. Jennifer Connelly is something more rare, perhaps, more valuable--she seems to portray in the activist Sarah Williams the perfect human being. Yet an impenetrable fabric is drawn between these two lovers, the form of which is raised by Sarah's violent death while engaging in political unrest in Chile. Yet the intensity of Fielding's longing, or the strength of Sarah's soul, appears to have the power to resurrect her, as she begins to appear to Fielding in haunting glimpses. Wonderfully, this film takes for granted that love can transcend even death as simply and easily as a person can breathe. What a disappointment then that the center of this piece is so unsatisfyingly jumbled. Supporting characters are revealed to be flimsy characters callously used as mere props who have no life of their own but are used strictly to advance each scene to its conclusion. Most notoriously, the fine Sandra Oh is tragically miscast in a downright offensive turn as a half-intelligible prostitute. The story seems to dwell interminably on Crudup's Fielding in the throes of struggle to hold fast to his thread of lucidity as his political career verges towards its culmination in his race for a Congressial seat, even as his inner world is crumbling further with each passing minute. Can he keep his agony in check? The answer to this concern seems to fade to meaninglessness as he stumbles along the campaign trail, abusing his chances at office and his relationships with those still remaining in the land of the living. Perhaps this movie loses its center of gravity because director Keith Gordon and writer Robert Dillon craft a world that, although admirably fixated on the emotional life and consciousness shared by the two stars, does not care enough about the rest of the world for it to serve the story as a stabilizing platform when the lovers' connection is shattered. An unworthy medium for a performance by Crudup to stand with that of FH in Jesus' Son, and what is possibly Connelly's best work. Nonetheless credit is due this film for attempting something so wonderfully strange; it's sentiment and, most of all, its imagination and invention, must return to the screen in these days of lost heart and cynical eyes, now, more than ever.
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