Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup) is a promising young congressional candidate who becomes obsessed with the idea that his dead lover, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), is still alive. Because of her involvement with a group called Sanctuary that harbors Chilean dissidents, Sarah is presumably killed in a car bombing. However, Fielding is never completely convinced that she's truly gone and years later begins to see and hear her presence. Filled with revealing flashbacks, the film follows the deeply involved romance of the ambitious Fielding and the idealistic Sarah during the 1970s while also portraying Fielding's struggle to win his congressional bid in the 1980s. As his political campaign progresses, so does his belief that Sarah is still alive, leading him to question his sanity and begin a desperate search to find her. WAKING THE DEAD is an eerily atmospheric drama, awash in chilling shades of black, white, and gray. Director Keith Gordon's use of flashback and nonlinear storytelling effectively conveys the deep power of memory and love that transcends traditional conceptions of time. Alternating between the past and the present, Gordon's adaptation of the novel by Scott Spencer is a dreamy, mysterious affair that features supremely convincing lead performances by Crudup and Connelly as well as solid supporting turns by Janet McTeer and Hal Holbrook.

Related Categories:
Movies > Dramas

Related Keywords:
Ghosts
Romance
Thriller
Theatrical Release
Based On A Novel

Synopsis:
Keith Gordon's WAKING THE DEAD is a mysterious psychological drama concerning a lawyer who is running for U.S. congress. When he begins to see intense visions of his supposedly deceased girlfriend, he starts questioning his sanity.

Notes:
Theatrical release: March 24, 2000. The film premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly also appear together in 1997's INVENTING THE ABBOTTS. Robert Dillon was nominated for Best Screenplay in the Independent Spirit Awards.

Reviews:
"...WAKING THE DEAD scores on the obsessive-love front..." - p.31 Premiere, 04/2000

"...Crudup etches a corrosive portrait of a man coming apart..." - 03/2000 Movieline's Hollywood Life, p.37

"...An often impressive intimacy....Visually enticing..." - 09/29/2000 Entertainment Weekly, p.110

"...Mr. Crudup is a creditable actor who puts a great deal of craft into his performance....Ms. Connelly captures a burning ethereality and willfulness that are very much of the period..." - 03/24/2000 New York Times, p.E14

"WAKING THE DEAD is a powerful story of love and politics in the '70s and '80s and their bittersweet aftermath. It is a film of uncommon intelligence and rigor that illuminates a complex era..." - 03/24/2000 Los Angeles Times, p.F2

"...WAKING THE DEAD has a good heart and some fine performances....It's a sweet film..." - 03/31/2000 Chicago Sun-Times, p.52

Keith Gordon - American actor/director, BACK TO SCHOOL/WAKING THE DEAD
Billy Crudup - Actor
Jennifer Connelly - American Actress
Hal Holbrook - American actor, MARK TWAIN TONIGHT/ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN
Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. - American actor, MARK TWAIN TONIGHT/ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN
Paul Hipp - Actor/Director Of Photography
Janet McTeer - British Actress
Molly Parker - Canadian actress, KISSED, DEADWOOD, SWINGTOWN
Leah Pinsent - Actress
Tony Calabretta - Actor
Ivonne Coll - Actress
Scott Spencer - Writer
Robert Dillon - American Screenwriter
Sandra Oh - Canadian film and TV actress
Lawrence Dane - Director/Actor
Stuart Kleinman - Producer
Linda Reisman - Producer
Tom Richmond - Indie cinematographer
Jeff Wishengrad - Editor
Zoe Sakellaropoulo - Production Designer
Renee April
Tom Hajdu - Composer
Andy Milburn - Composer
Jodie Foster - American Actress/Director, NELL (1994)