Waking the Dead (2000)

Editor's Note 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.

	Lawrence Dane
	Ivonne Coll
	Janet McTeer
	Molly Parker
	Leah Pinsent
	Sandra Oh
	Jennifer Connelly
	Paul Hipp
	Tony Calabretta
	Hal Holbrook
	Billy Crudup
	Stuart Kleinman - Producer
	Keith Gordon - Producer
	Jodie Foster - Executive Producer
	Renee April - Costume Designer
	Jeff Wishengrad - Editor
	Tom Richmond - Director of Photography
	Tom Hajdu - Composer
	Linda Reisman - Producer
	Robert Dillon - Screenwriter
	Andy Milburn - Composer
	Zoe Sakellaropoulo - Production Designer
	Scott Spencer - Source Writer
	Keith Gordon - Director

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

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

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

New York Times
"...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 p.E14

Los Angeles Times
"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 p.F2

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