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Waking The Dead Details

1999 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 50
  • from 1066 members

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 harbours Chilean dissidents, Sarah is presumably killed in a car bombing. However, Fielding .. Read more

Starring Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly, Molly Parker, Janet McTeer
Director Keith Gordon
Genres Drama

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Waking The Dead

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 harbours 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 grey. Director Keith Gordon's use of flashback and non-linear 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.

Starring Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly, Molly Parker, Janet McTeer, Paul Hipp, Sandra Oh, Hal Holbrook
Director Keith Gordon
Studio 4 FRONT VIDEO
Run time DVD: 1 hr 41 mins
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Dubbed Spanish
Subtitles DVD: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Released DVD: 21 Feb 2005
Production year: 1999
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (2) of Waking The Dead

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  • 2 stars out of 5

    A fine supporting cast props up this sometimes uncomfortable combination of The Way We Were and The Sixth Sense. Achieving little of the intrigue generated by Mother Night, director Keith Gordon pulls together an ambiguous plotline, but it's hard to believe in the passion between budding politician Billy Crudup and radical activist Jennifer Connolly, which seems to survive her death — a decade earlier — in a car bombing. However, it is handsome, with winning performances from a strong cast.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006

  • This strange, beguiling work from Keith Gordon, one of America's more ambitious and idiosyncratic film-makers (The... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
    • Posted 04 Nov 2008

  • Most helpful member's review of Waking The Dead

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  • 7 out of 8 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    Clumsy and shallow drama

    When budding polititian Fielding Pierce(Billy Crudup) meets activist Sarah(Jennifer Connelly) they instantly fall in love. However, when Sarah is killed by a car bomb Fielding slowly manages to rebuild his life. Ten years later Fielding starts to 'see' Sarah with increasing regularity, is it simply haunting memories or could Sarah have survived the tragic bombing?

    Keith Gordon sets his drama up as an intriguing mixture of love story and ghost story and winds up falling between the two stools. Crudup and Connelly both give decent performances but their relationship is sketchy at best and Gordon's slow development of the sleepy plot doesn't help matters.

    Gordon never brings the different elements together and the ambiguous climax will frustrate viewers who have stayed with the movie until that point.

      • Philip Concannon from London
      • Posted 19 May 2004 23:27

  • Most recent members' review of Waking The Dead

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  • 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars

    Watch the Sky

    Both Jennifer Connelly and Billy Crudup have been in a movie together before - 'Inventing the Abbotts' - which is special in many ways. Sadly 'Waking the Dead' is not special - just ok. I have to come clean and say I am a big fan of Jennifers (check out 'Mulholland Falls') - and although she is lovely in this - the story, the script and the film making is not in the same league as their previous movie - and Jennifers beauty isn't going to change this.

    I also have to come clean about our Billy - I am not so keen on him - not sure why yet - but he is pretty good in this. 'Waking the Dead' is an ok B movie so check it out when it is shown on Sky.

      • Kris7 from Isle of Bute
      • Posted 28 Nov 2004 02:38

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      • 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 ...