Heaven

Rating:
Summary: Submit and be redeemed!
Review: Viewers familiar with 'Run Lola Run' and 'The Princess and the Warrior' will enjoy this film that came and went with barely a trace in the 'plexes. Beautifully shot, well acted and directed with the simplicity that comes with a specific mastery of the medium, this is well worth purchasing. The DVD has an excellent picture and the director always conjures up a better than average commentary, if you like that as an extra feature. Another poetic, absorbing film from Tom Tykwer.

Rating:
Summary: Un-Hollywood
Review: What is especially remarkable about this film is how "un-Hollywood" it is. In Hollywood hands this would have been a breathless chase flick, and it would have completely lost what is special about it.
Which is very deficult to define, but it something moody and timeless.

Visuals and acting is excellent. Giovanni Ribisi always continue to amaze me. If you remember what he put into the part of Frank Jr. in the otherwise lightweight comedy Friends, you know what I mean. (He is also great in The Gift.)

Rating:
Summary: Transcendent in every sense
Review: What is heaven? More importantly, how do we, as imperfect people, transcend our daily limitations and transgressions to reach heaven - be it here on Earth or elsewhere? The master Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, who wrote the screenplay for "Heaven" shortly before his death in 1996, uses the film's story and dialogue as a final opportunity to expand the core humanist philosophy that underlies nearly all of his films ("Decalogue", "Trois Couleurs", "Double Life of Veronique".)

Philippa, played by Cate Blanchett, is a widowed English teacher living in Turin. Disillusioned from the mounting death toll that drug abuse has claimed on several of her young students and her recently deceased husband, Phillippa executes a desperate plan to kill Turin's drug kingpin, Vendice, by deposting a bomb in his office trashbin. When the bomb is unknowingly intercepted by a cleaning woman on her daily rounds and taken to an elevator transporting a father and his two daughters, Philippa's plan goes horribly wrong. She has unwittingly killed 4 innocent people. Philippa is arrested and interrogated by the Turin police, who accuse her of politically motivated terrorism as a way of masking their professional involvement with Vendice, the kingpin. Philippa readily acknowledges her guilt, only to have a complete breakdown upon learning of the innocent bystanders who lost their lives in her vengeful plot. Her interpreter during the interrogation, handsome Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), is moved by Philippa's story, quickly falls in love with her, and ultimately hatches a plan to help her escape from the carabinieri, who see her as a problem to be "eliminated", because of her knowledge of Vendice's operations. Philippa herself is less concerned with escape than with killing Vendice, once and for all.

Once Philippa and Filippo do escape into the Tuscan countryside (in a very deftly directed and edited sequence), you know that justice will eventually extract its due punishment. And while the last third of the movie quietly builds on this sense of dread, "Heaven" is no "Bonnie and Clyde" or "Thelma and Louise"; Kieslowski is more concerned with Philippa's redemption and transcendence; and so the final scenes employ a sublime poetic imagery (and a meditative pace) to reveal Phillippa's transformation. In a Tuscan church, not 20 feet from a confessional booth, Phillippa recounts for Filippo her many transgressions and failings, then reveals why: "I've lost any belief - in justice, in sense, in life." Filippo's response? "I love you." Later, in a clandestine meeting between the pair and Filippo's father, Philippa acknowledges that, despite all her cynicism and failings, she does indeed love Filippo. Director Tom Twyker perfectly captures, in this scene, the innocence and renewal at the core of Phillippa's declaration - as close to a marriage vow as the couple will get. By this time, Philippa and Filippo have assumed a hypnotic Adam and Eve persona, shaving their heads and dressing alike, and finally disrobing at sunset on the Tuscan hills to consummate their love. (Several moviegoers in my theatre gasped at the striking beauty and imagery of the scene).

When the carabinieri finally close in on them, Kieslowski suggests that the physical aspect of their fate (whether they are captured and killed) is less important than their spiritual fate (their complete redemption and transcendence). But Kieslowski and Twyker balance the competing demands for physical and spiritual resolution by leaving us with a stunning closing scene that implies both. (Some critics didn't understand this, but oh well.)

And so Kieslowski reiterates his core philosophy: That chance and fate are often better instruments of justice than mankind itself, that goodness and evil exist in each of us, and that even the most flawed among us can achieve transcendence, through contrition and love for one another. In a world of escalating terrorism and global wars, the ever-prescient Kieslowski is already sorely missed.

Rating:
Summary: How high can you fly?
Review: What is true love? What would we do to keep it, once we find it? Is this what it is like to find a true soulmate? What is wrong and right if we seek redemption, but are dragged down by a lust for justice? The quietly beautiful "Heaven" will leave those thoughts in your head as you watch it.

In Italy, young schoolteacher Phillipa Paccard (Cate Blanchett) sneaks into drug kingpin Vendice's office and plants a bomb in his trash, little knowing that the trash is about to be collected by the cleaning lady. The resulting explosion kills the lady, a father and his two children. When Phillipa is arrested and told this, she is aghast. She only intended to kill the kingpin, because his distribution of drugs has been killing her pupils, and killed her husband. She has asked the cabinieri to help, but no one has answered. So she took justice into her own hands.

A young Italian cabinieri, Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), serves as a translator for Phillipa, and he is struck by her self-recrimination and sorrow. When her evidence is destroyed by a spy in the police, Philipo creates an elaborate escape plan, then helps her kill Vendice. From there, they escape into Tuscany, where their bond grows deeper. The soul mates live in what seems like a paradise, shaving their heads and wearing identical clothes. But Tuscany is not heaven, and they are still not safe.

Tom Tykwer gave the film its focus (lovers in jeopardy) and unearthly direction, but Krzysztof Kieslowski provided the heart and soul of it. In that sense, it is wholly his movie. Themes of guilt and redemption, love and salvation, punishment and forgiveness run deep in "Heaven." Symbolism clings to it like ivy (the white shirts, the bright lights), and there are definite religious tones to it -- Phillipa's confession to Filipo in a church, the wistful watching of a wedding, and the ascension into the skies -- not the triumph of law, but the triumph of love and forgiveness.

The handling of Phillipa and Filippo is exquisite, such as the scenes where they shave their heads and wear identical clothes, run and walk in unison. He was born on the day of her first communion, and their names are male and female versions of each other's, yin and yang. Not exactly subtle, but convincing. The direction is otherworldly, even in scenes like Phillipa shooting Vendice. In the latter half of the film, this dreaminess pervades everything -- the trees, sky, ruined stone churches and the tiny running figures.

The main problems, it seems, would be the ocasional clash between Tykwer and the late Kieslowski's style. Some parts are more Tykwer, some are more Kieslowski, so it seems sometimes that the focus is less on the storyline and more on the lovers (which is more Tykwer). Additionally, when the lovers arrive in Tuscany the tone changes to a less hard-edged, more romantic one. Some viewers may find this disconcerting, but I found it a natural progression as the two grew closer and sought some kind of haven, even if Phillipa doesn't want to go unpunished.

Cate Blanchett is in amazing form here, expressing grief, love, pride, and anger with only a slight change of expression. Giovanni Ribisi is almost as good; he's a little stiff in the beginning, but loosens up and becomes fully believable as a very young man who is very deeply in love. Remo Girone appears in only a few scenes as Filipo's dad, but is heartbreakingly good.

With the best of Tykwer and Kieslowski carefully woven together, "Heaven" is a quietly passionate, deeply romantic movie. An amazing, heartbreaking movie, and not one to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Thelma and Luigi
Review: When a film compels an audience with three dimensional characters, an interesting story, and honest emotion, we're ready to listen to whatever "message" the filmmaker wants to send us. When the film, however, is ALL about the message, I hear nothing, and I refuse to listen. Such is the case with Heaven, a beautifully shot film that is also one of the most pretentious films to come out this year. It opens with a view of rolling hills from a virtual helicopter, with boxy, pixillated trees and clouds, and the "pilot" asking how high he can go. That's a perfect metaphor for this virtual "film," with its boxy unreal characters doing silly, unlikeable, unbelievable things in order to support the heavy-handed symbolism the filmmakers cram down the viewers throat. If Hollywood is often guilty of gratuitous sex and violence, Heaven rates a triple X in pretension. And if this is Heaven, I can only imagine how it will look in Hell.

Rating:
Summary: Visually beautiful and a good script
Review: When you put together a team that includes names such as producers Anthony Minghella (English patient), Sidney Pollack (Out of Africa, among others), a talented director like Tom Tikwer (Run Lola run) and excellent actors like Giovanni Ribisi (Saving private Ryan) and Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth), working under a script of the late Krzysztof Kieslowski (The french colors trilogy), you could only get an excellent movie, as "Heaven" surely is.

Cate Blanchett is Phillipa, a british living in Torino giving english classes. Her husband and several of her students suffer (or have already died) from drug abbuse, and even if she insistently warns the authorities against the italian city's druglord, nothing is done. Taking the matter in her own hands, Phillipa manages to get a bomb into the traffic-dealer's office, but something goes wrong and instead she kills four innocent people. Arrested, the only help she will get is from newtimer caribiniero Fillipo, magistraly performed by Giovanni Ribisi (speaking in italian). Fillipo will escape with her into the italian countryside, and there they will discover if indeed there's redemption for their sins and if they will find their way to heaven.

German director Tikwer was able to create a beautiful movie. The first half seems more like "Run Lola run", full of twists, action and sudden happenings. The second half is more spiritual, more visual and more thought-provoking. Some of the shots are incredibly beautiful, and the cinematography is one of the best I've seen lately. Even the actors go through amazing visual and symbolic transformations. To fully understand the movie, the viewer must pay attention and understand not only the characters actions, but their clothes, lines and other subtle things as well, all along with the incredible italian background.

I surely hope "Heaven" is only the first part of a movie-trilogy.

Grade 9.3/10

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Tykwer/Kieslowski collaboration
Review: With Heaven, director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) directs the final script of Polish writer-director Krzyzstof Kieslowski and comes up with a combination of their contrasting styles that somehow manage to work well together.

Cate Blanchett stars as Phillipa Paccard, an English amateur terrorist living in Italy whose one attempt at assassination goes horribly wrong. She meant to kill the local drug kingpin with a bomb in his trashcan. He had been selling to school kids and was responsible for the death of her husband. Instead she inadvertently became responsible for the deaths of four innocents--a cleaning woman (who naively emptied the wastebasket) and a father and his two daughters--when the elevator they were riding in was blown off the building by the bomb.

Since she is already in trouble for the crime, she sets out to complete her original task. A local policeman, Fillipo (Giovanni Ribisi), who has a school-age brother, decides to risk his job and life in order to assist her in her attempt on the kingpin's life.

Kieslowski's screenplay uses the masculine and feminine counterparts of the name "Phillip," letting us know from the beginning (in cinema language) that these two are inextricably intertwined, two halves of the same whole. As the film progresses, they slowly take on each other's appearance in their styles of dress and hair.

Heaven is probably not a film for fans of Tykwer's frenetic Run Lola Run, as its slow--almost hypnotic--pacing contrasts greatly with Lola's. But for those willing to take the risk, Heaven is very rewarding. It is wonderful to see Blanchett and Ribisi together again after previously displaying their terrific chemistry in The Gift, another great film. Their performances alone are worth the viewing, but even so the setup at the beginning of the film pays off beautifully at the perfect, if inevitable, ending.