Waking the Dead

REVIEW
An ambitious young lawyer -- whose lifelong dream is to be president -- is given the chance to run for the Senate. Unfortunately, during the election race, he keeps catching glimpses of his old girlfriend, who died 8 years earlier, and begins to emotionally unravel. Unusual film posits many interesting ideas and questions (ambition vs. ideals; can two politically disparate people remain passionately in love; etc.) within an intriguing flashback- and forward-laden structure. Sadly, the two charismatic leads are saddled with some clichéd dialogue, spoken over an ill-chosen, cloying soundtrack. Several of Crudup's "sightings" of the presumed dead Connelly are eerily effective, and the film's themes keep it afloat, but the flaws overcome the film's virtues, and the whole affair ends on an unsatisfying, depressing note.