Heaven

Rating:
Summary: Becoming whole
Review: HEAVEN opens to the unrolling, virtual landscape as "seen" in a helicopter flight simulator with the voice-over of the trainer and trainee as the latter navigates the computer-generated topography close to the "ground". The sequence ends as the student pilot climbs his "craft" higher, and higher, and higher until the instructor terminates the session with the caution that one can't keep climbing forever, and turns off the visual display. The last words come from the trainee on a darkened screen in the form of a question. The sequence doesn't make much sense at the moment, but does hint that there's perhaps more to the upcoming plot than the obvious.

Cate Blanchett is Philippa, a British-born English teacher in Turin, Italy, who's lost her husband and at least one student to the ravages of illegal drugs. The narcotics' source, a powerful business executive, is known to the tutor. Not having gotten any help from the police after repeated entreaties, Philippa plants a bomb in the waste can of the dealer's high rise office, and then calls the authorities to take responsibility for the imminent assassination. Unfortunately, the trash is emptied by a cleaning lady before it detonates, and she and three other innocents are ultimately killed in the blast. Philippa is arrested as a terrorist and interrogated, during which time the young police translator, a raw recruit named Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), falls in love with her and engineers her escape. Philippa declares she has no wish to avoid responsibility for her deadly mistake, but needs the opportunity to balance the scales by finishing the rough justice she intended.

It's a good thing that the director had in mind something more profound than the face-value of the storyline because the latter is occasionally wildly improbable or leaves questions unanswered. If Philippa was the only occupant of her cell, why did the police bug it? How could Filippo, basically just a kid, have the informed smarts to pull off a sophisticated jail break? (The fact that his Dad used to be the local head of the carabinieri isn't enough.) Where did Philippa learn how to construct a bomb? (Her explanation that it was just left in her apartment doesn't cut it, especially since the audience sees her making it.) At the finale, how did the storm troopers and the police helicopter know where to go?

I consider Cate Blanchett to be one of the finest actresses in the business. She doesn't just act a role, she becomes the character. At one point in HEAVEN, her tresses are shorn down to stubble on-screen. How many actors today would have such dedication to a role to do that?

The film is stylishly photographed. The perspective is often above the action, as when the camera is shooting straight down as it passes high across Turin's streetscape, as if the director wants to make the point that the film's message is above the mundane cares of the human ants below. And what is that message? Without sounding to corny, perhaps it's that the sublime event of a lifetime must be grasped at any cost, even if it leads to morally ambiguous actions. The similarity of the names "Philippa" and "Filippo" isn't accidental.

The film's conclusion is perhaps too symbolic. It's unsatisfying in that it skirts the issue of ownership of one's actions, something which Philippa made clear early on she was willing to assume. There's no Bonnie and Clyde denouement here. However, the final screen shot does tie in with the question posed at the end of the opening sequence. HEAVEN.

Rating:
Summary: Heaven , Hell & Purgatory ...
Review: Heaven was a wonderful experience. Cate Blanchett is talented as well as beautiful and she carried the movie with grace. Giovanni Ribisi does a great job (my opinion is that he is one of the most under rated actors in the business). If you liked Run Lola Run and Princess and the Warrior you will love Heaven. The speed of the movie is similar to Princess and the Warrior and the relationship between the main characters carry similar characteristics. I am amazed at how the director can show his characters have so much passion,depth and charisma between each other without ever really touching. The ending is more like a begining(re-birth) which makes this philosophical film work.

Rating:
Summary: COULD HAVE BEEN GOOD
Review: Here's a movie that has a narrow appeal. First off, the sub titles, which are not too bad because there is quite a bit of English spoken, however, if you hate them (as I do) then you might want to stay away. Second problem, the long, long, long camera shots with no dialog and little movement. The opening scene plays out along with the credits for what feels like 10 minutes without a spoken word. The movie has the "not made in America" quality - not quite Fellini, but you get the idea. Others said the first half and the second don't mix, they're right! There are some really interesting ideas, but the slowness of the pace is horrible and all the momentum is lost during the last 45 boring minutes. This movie needs a remake - keeping the always wonderful Blanchett.

Rating:
Summary: Butchery in the Editor's Booth
Review: Horrible. Just horrible. The director cared more about his expensive helicopter-platformed cinematography than he did for his characters. A myriad of scenes which would have tied the loose ends of the characters up better, and would have fleshed them out better, wound up on the floor of the editor's booth. The editor and director were evidently in a tug-of-war with the screenplay writer or something; whatever it was, this thing got butchered.

Rating:
Summary: Tykwer Creates a Heavenly Film
Review: How can a sinner go to heaven? Tom Tykwer working from a script by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski (BLUE, WHITE, RED) and his writing partner Krzysztof Piesiewicz posits through acknowledgement of the sin and confession in HEAVEN.

Cate Blanchett is stunning, and filled with a deadly, single-minded purpose as Philippa, a woman seeking justice against a drug dealer who was responsible for the death of her husband and many others. When her explosive plan goes horribly wrong, she is horrified by her actions, yet still bent on her mission. However she is incarcerated by the Italian police for the crime, and only through the intervention by the officer translating named Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi) can she continue.

The first half of the film is superior than the latter half, but I enjoyed HEAVEN quite a bit. Working with the themes of
love and destiny as in his earlier films (THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR and RUN, LOLA, RUN) HEAVEN also brings in some of the Christian notions of absolution and confession. The ending, while strongly symbolic, still manages to be breath-taking and powerful. I was less convinced of the Adam & Eve symbolism in the film's penultimate moments.

As a fan of Tykwer's work, I always feel as I've enjoyed a thoroughly cinematic work after witnessing one of his films. Tykwer and his cinematographer, Frank Griebe (Chlotrudis winner for LOLA) construct a beautiful film, with swooping crane and stunning aerial shots. The crowded Italian city, and expansive Italian countryside are wonderfully shot. Tykwer also uses sound and music effectively to convey his mood.

I was trying to delve into the whole "twin" aspect of the two characters, who share a name, a birthday, and halfway through the film, a look. With Filippo being born on the day Philippa received her first holy communion, it's possible that he is her spiritual self, offerring her a chance for redemption.

In any event, HEAVEN is a strong film, with lots to think about. I can only wonder what Kieslowski's unmade trilogy (HEAVEN, HELL and PURGATORY) would have come to.

Rating:
Summary: SORRY TO DAY
Review: I am a big fan of giovanni ribisi (due to his boyish good looks and brilliant delivery on screen) but what was the purpose of this movie? he meets this woman who's upset about drugs being sold to children and wants revenge so he helps her than there's a scene where he wets the bed COME ON! I was very dissapointed by this movie and I must say the only good thing about it was that in a majority of giovanni's scene's he spoke in italian besides that please save yourself's the grief ( and the money) and just skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: two films about fugitives
Review: I can easily give this film 4 stars despite the fact that it has achieved relative obscurity compared to its "bigger brothers" ("Master and Commander" or "Cold Mountain");it does deserve the rating on artistic merits and bears comparison to another current film "The Statement" with which it shares a similar theme--2 fugitives from justice. The Blanchett film begins with a teacher's arrest for a "terrorist" act that misfires (she in fact wants to kill a drug lord with a bomb and eventually succeeds in doing so with a gun, with her lover's help), and her interrogation by the Italian police for 4 murders she in fact was responsible for. The second half concerns her escape from prison and subsequent love affair with Ribisi, who plays an interrogating cop who falls in love with her and her plight, and assists in her escape. The first part of the film is set in Torino, Italy, an urban architectural wonder, like most of Europe. The second half is mainly about these 2 fugitives from justice and their narrow escapes from the law,hiding out in vans, travelling by train across the Italian countryside,assisted by Ribisi's younger brother and by an old friend, culminating in a dramatic escape in an ascending helicopter while the carbonieri fill the air with a hail of gunshots skyward,hence the title, "Heaven". The question of how they morally resolve the 4 deaths they in fact were responsible for is not dealt with.

"The Statement" is also about a fugitive from justice, in this case an officer in the French Vichy government accused of killing 7 Jews during World War II and hiding out in the South of France ever since. Based on a novel by Brian Moore, this film has rather subtle dramatic tension as Caine moves from French abbey to abbey,always on the run, shielded by the right-wing clergy for unknown reasons, while being chased by various French bounty hunters with different motives. There are scenes in the cafes of Provence,by the Marseilles harbor, and in numerous French abbeys which add cinematically to the film's style. Caine as Broussart commits 2 murders of would-be vigilantes by being quicker on the draw, and performs a
number of other escape acts, including one across the rooftops of Nice. All and all it adds up to a rather low-key thriller, with Caine in charge of his role as the former Vichy executioner, now a tired but devout Catholic,who just wants his life to end "in saving grace." Unfortunately, it doesn't work out quite that way. "The Statement" may not be a thrillride quite in the same vein as a James Bond movie, but it does have its moments and likewise deserves 4 stars, though some might find it boring.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful cross between crime thriller and arthouse film
Review: I think the strength of this film lies in its cross between a crime thriller and an arthouse-style love story. The pace is slow, but still flows along smoothly and doesn't drag down the sense of action. Heaven opens in a very modern, technological setting of helicopters, bombs, drugs and terrorists, yet manages to close perfectly at the end with a sense of 'a state of grace' that should not usually be found in an action flick. It's a perfect transition from thriller to something more than a love story.

Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi are outstanding in their acting. In looks and small gestures, they subtly convey the entire sense of their characters. The camera work is fantastic too, the most memorable scene being the one where the camera pans 360 degrees around the tree on Philippa's friend's farm, night turning to day turning to dusk again as the Philippa and Filippo wander underneath. The accompanying music score, though minimalistic and simple, suits the atmosphere perfectly with the strains of violin and piano chords.

The only lamentable flaw is in the film is that there is no resolution to Philippa's pain at having caused the death of 4 innocents. Early on she tells Filippo that she agreed to escape not because she wanted to escape punishment, and later she says she will never be able to live with what she has done. These seem to indicate that some form of 'punishment' is in order, but at the end of the film nothing more is said about that and we have to assume she has decided she can very well live happily ever after with Filippo, neglecting her guilt at having killed innocents in her quest for justice. Since the impact of the film is based Phillipa's moral decision to take justice into her own hands and the terrible consequences, it is an unforgivable oversight to so blithely ignore her guilt -even if she never intended for the bombing to go awry- in favour of love, no matter how beautiful or touching that love is.

Rating:
Summary: A.H.
Review: I'm not sure. I like Tom Tykwer's work, Winter Sleepers, Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior, I would recommend them all, but I'm not sure this is his kind of film. Much like Spielberg rescued A.I. after Kubrick passed away, Tykwer took on this project after famed director Krzysztof Kieslowski (The Decalogue, Red, White, Blue) died. And like Spielberg, I think Tykwer was over his head. Now I'm not saying this film is bad, on the contrary, I thought it was good, but flawed.

Cate Blanchett plays an English woman teaching in Italy who decides after seeing her husband and several students die from drug addiction she is going to take out the drug dealer. She plants a bomb in his office, but a cleaning lady removes it and consequently four innocent people are killed. She confesses to the crime, but she does not know the outcome of her attack. Giovanni Ribisi comes in as an interpreter and decides to help her.

This is thoughtful film, as Kieslowski's films are. The characters are similar, their names are similar, eventually they look similar, and they are both fighting for similar causes. They try to do right by doing wrong. Blanchett never claims she is innocent, and she is devastated by what she has done. She just wants closure. She wants to do the right thing. Tykwer handles this well. Additionally, like all of Tykwer's films, it is beautifully shot.

This was all good, but it didn't play out. For several reasons I guess. The pacing was off. Where Lola was the hare, Heaven is the tortoise, although in this comparison the hare wins. What I mean by this is that Heaven is not the kind of story that brings out the best of Tykwer's talents. Ribisi and Blanchett are both quite good, especially Blanchett, but their characters sort of run out of gas by the end of the film. I'm not really sure who to point a finger at for this so I won't.

There is some good stuff in Heaven. It is a sad film, not really my taste, but it is sincere. A good outing, but not everything it could have been. Who knows?

Rating:
Summary: The Triumph Of Substance Over Style
Review: In his first English language film, "Heaven", German director Tom Tykwer abandons his earlier displays visual pyrotechnics, fast cut editing, and adrenaline laced pacing, to present us with heart felt meditation on the nature of unconditional love. This may disappoint some fans of his brilliant trilogy of films ("Night Sleepers", "Run Lola Run" and "Princess and the Warrior") which explored the themes of syncronicity, metaphysics and causality. It is the blissful performance of the cameleon-like actress Cate Blanchett that allows Tykwer the space to breathe and expand his artistic vision.

"Heaven" begins as a thriller involving a woman obsessed with avenging the death of her husband, but quickly shifts gears and becomes an exploration of love between doomed outsiders, another favorite Tykwer theme. Tykwer shot the film in Italy and it is technically a bi-lingual film, because much of the dialogue is in Italian. Giovanni Ribisi, whose career has alternated between lackluster and compelling acting efforts, presents a starkly well crafted perfomance of an Italian policeman who becomes obsessed with Cate Blanchett's school teacher character. The langorous pacing of "Heaven" allows us linger on the voluptuous camera work of Frank Griebe, Tykwer's brilliant cinematographer. Griebe's sensual, impressionistic lens has become the trademark of a Tykwer film.

In his last film, "The Princess and the Warrior", Tywker gave ample notice that he was maturing as a director, and was becoming more concerned with character development over technical gimmickery. Many of Tykwer's younger devotees may point out logical flaws in the script or find the film's more tender moments absurd. "Heaven" is about the frailty of the human psyche and, for Tykwer, it is the triumph of substance over style.