Waking the Dead

"Waking the Dead" has a scary title and a plot that's similar to "The Sixth Sense." <br><br>But it would be a big mistake to confuse this gentle, slow-moving movie with the Bruce Willis shocker. <br><br>"Waking

Friday, March 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

"Waking the Dead" has a scary title and a plot that's similar to "The Sixth Sense."

But it would be a big mistake to confuse this gentle, slow-moving movie with the Bruce Willis shocker.

"Waking the Dead" has few thrills and no chills. Instead, it asks us to contemplate the notion that the past is never past â€“ and that we all have to come to terms with the loss of love.

The film opens in 1972, when a budding politician (Billy Crudup) finds out that his lover (Jennifer Connelly) has been killed in a car bombing.

Fast-forward 10 years, and we see the young man as he is mounting his first congressional campaign. Suave and smooth and Kennedyesque, he appears to be on the verge of victory, except for one problem: He keeps seeing visions of his dead lover.

We're invited to share in his confusion â€“ to hope against hope that the woman is still alive, that perhaps she's been forced into hiding because of her involvement in the sanctuary movement for leftist Latin Americans.

Our confusion is heightened by director Keith Gordon, who keeps switching the movie's time element between the 1970s and 1980s. We're torn, just as the young man is torn. Is he really cracking up? Or is it possible that his lover is alive and in hiding?

And on another level, is the politician making compromises to get elected and thereby rejecting the idealism of his youth? And if he is rejecting this idealism, then is he also rejecting his dead lover and all she stood for?
This may sound like fodder for cheap melodrama. And, in fact, the final scene does has a whiff of sentimentality reminiscent of Frank Capra.

But "Waking the Dead" rises above these minor problems, with an understated performance from Mr. Crudup, one of the most sensitive and talented young actors of our day.
Some will criticize "Waking the Dead" for being dull, and they'll probably joke that this movie couldn't wake up a light sleeper. Some of us, however, will be thankful to find a movie that gently asks for our attention without ever raising its voice.

Director Gordon, whose previous efforts include "A Midnight Clear" and "The Chocolate War," has given us another subtle, quiet and thoughtful film.