Review

Review Date: 20-October-02
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Heaven (2002)

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether the failure of a movie really to get under your skin is the fault of the filmmakers or your own disposition; such is the case for me with Tom Tykwer's Heaven. Like Run Lola Run, Tykwer's first hit, Heaven is a story about the immense power of love. It features the amazingly beautiful scenery of Italy and the amazingly beautiful Cate Blanchett, served up with a sumptuous score and well paced, nicely artistic direction. (Giovanni Ribisi also stars, who, though not beautiful like Blanchett, is certainly as intense and earnest.) I admit, this tasteful offering to the heart caused me to shed a tear or two. But when all was said and done, Heaven didn't reach me in the way I know it was meant to. It knocked on my door with a sure, hearty rap, but I just wasn't answering.

Blanchett plays Philippa, a British-born expatriate living in Italy who, at the beginning of the film, plants a bomb in the office of a businessman whom she knows to be a drug dealer. Unfortunately (except for the drug dealer), the bomb ends up going off in an elevator and killing four innocent people (including two children). Hauled into police headquarters, Philippa tries to explain that her target was the dealer and her motive revenge for the way in which he has destroyed her dead husband and other drug addicts. The carabinieri, however, suspect that she is a member of a terrorist group. Present at her interrogation is a rookie policeman named Filippo (Ribisi), a sort of man-child who takes a good look at Philippa and instantly falls in love with her. In a series of somewhat improbable steps, he helps her not only to escape, but to finish her quest for retribution. Then the two head out on the lam, never far from danger but somehow secure just by being together.

Blanchett and Ribisi played mystically connected characters in 2000's The Gift, and they do so again here. (Maybe they're trying to tell us, or their spouses, something.) Not only do Philippa and Filippo share the same name, but they were born on the same day a few years apart. Their love is sudden, absolute, and all-powerful. In the beginning, Philippa is a hardened woman whose only objective is retaliation, and Filippo has followed his father into the police force only because he lacks a purpose of his own. Each in his or her own way, they have devoted themselves to justice; but justice is shown to be a messy, corruptible, hit-or-miss affair when administered by humans. Philippa continues to cling to it, even wishing for her own capture or death, until she engages in a sort of confession in an old church and lists her crimes, which include infidelity as well as five killings. Filippo absorbs it all and answers simply, "I love you." And therein lies the tale. True love looks everything and everyone square in the face and absolves all sins. It even, I guess, sends you straight to heaven.

While I like this idea, love of a celestial nature is a hard thing to capture on film. It's not carnal, so a good sex scene isn't going to do it. It's not based on mutual respect and trust, so it doesn't have a history that can be tapped. And, while the pith of other such romances (like Tony and Maria's in West Side Story) can be defined by a single, magical moment, Filippo and Philippa fall in love at different times. Nor are they both dewy-eyed youths; in an interesting deviation from the norm, the lady is a cold-blooded killer. Blanchett and Ribisi are both fine actors who can convey emotion without words, but their talent did not suffice (for me) to bring out the nature and intensity of their love clearly. I would have liked more detail on what they were feeling — but this would probably have changed the story, in catering to the very lack of faith that Tykwer is trying to dispel.

Because Heaven extols Love with a capital "L," some people might dismiss it as pretentious or arty. I myself think it's a nice piece of work; I just wasn't able to appreciate all it had to offer. In this era of questionable religious motives, when we're supposed to be entertained by watching complete strangers get married on TV, I am glad that movies like Heaven are being made. Even so, while my mind understands and admires what Tykwer is getting at, my heart remains doubtful of its truth.

Copyright © 2002 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.