Waking the Dead (2000)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Keith Gordon

Writers (WGA):

Scott Spencer (novel)
Robert Dillon (screenplay)

Release Date:

24 March 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Sometimes love has a life of its own.

Plot:

A congressional candidate questions his sanity after seeing the love of his life, presumed dead, suddenly emerge.

Plot Keywords:

Politician | Election | Explosion | Flashback | Human Rights

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Billy Crudup	...	Fielding Pierce
Jennifer Connelly	...	Sarah Williams
Molly Parker	...	Juliet Beck
Janet McTeer	...	Caroline Pierce
Paul Hipp	...	Danny Pierce
Sandra Oh	...	Kim
Hal Holbrook	...	Isaac Green
Nelson Landrieu	...	Francisco Higgens
Ivonne Coll	...	Gisela Higgens
Lawrence Dane	...	Governor Kinosis
Ed Harris	...	Jerry Charmichael
Larry Marshall	...	Angelo Bertelli
Stanley Anderson	...	Fielding's Father
Patricia Gage	...	Fielding's Mother
John Carroll Lynch	...	Father Mileski

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality and language.

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:12 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | France:U | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Egg Pictures

Trivia:

Jennifer Connelly's son, Kai was in the film, she was holding him in the scene in which Fielding was at the church.

Goofs:

Factual errors: 23 January 1983, the election day, was on a Sunday.

Quotes:

Fielding Pierce: The thing about Harvard for somebody from the working class like us - we come from a working class background - is a terrible sense of isolation, of aloneness there.

Movie Connections:

References Vertigo (1958)

Soundtrack:

Maggie May

Another truly great character study from Keith Gordon

Following in the big footsteps of "The Chocolate War", "A Midnight Clear" and "Mother Night", Waking the Dead" is perhaps the most cohesive and satisfying film by Keith Gordon to date. This is a film composed of two parts. The first part is a love story which takes place in America but focuses on the violent overthrow of the Salvador Allende republic in Chile. Fielding Pierce, the protagonist, is an idealistic naval officer from a working class family. He meets Sarah (played by the always lovely Jennifer Connelly), a free-thinking social activist, and they begin a whirlwind romance. Soon, though, she leaves for Chile, where she is murdered during the coup d'etat staged by Pinochet. Fielding, of course is devastated, and it leaves a scar on him which still hasn't healed when the film flashes forward to the eighties, when he has gotten into politics. Attached now to an important politico's daughter, Fielding has to make some important decisions regarding the ideals he holds so important while coping with a tremendous loss he never really came to grips with. Many critics have panned this film for being contrived and unbelievable, mostly because of the "ghost" sequences and the chronological flashback "vignette" structure which Gordon uses to paint the story. I found it refreshing after so many Pulp Fiction wannabe timeline films having been made in the last 10 years. Also, isn't it a bit wonderful to see a film that equates personal emotional turmoil with personal idealistic/political turmoil. In the midst of dealing with the loss/reincarnation of Sarah, Fielding is forced into making hard choices about what kind of man he is going to be; a member of the political machine or a true servant of the people. A rare treat.