Heaven is for Real

Quite often I will keep from reviewing (or even watching) faith based movies.  Typically there is little positive to say about the production value, script, and tone of the films, with many of them forgetting subtlety and bluntly bashing home their themes in ways that could leave people outside of the religious fold feeling as though they were tied down and force-fed a diet of theological cinema.  It is not even as though I do not hold religious beliefs, but more so a fact that I want to see movies of a certain quality (it is a bit ironic that I claim that, because I still find myself lured into watching movies about sharks being caught in massive wind storms).

Heaven is for Real stands out from other similar films due to a high level of production quality.  While most faith based movies have the appearance of a made for TV movie, director Randall Wallace (We Were Soldiers, Secretariat) brought a level of expertise which visually afforded Heaven is for Real the ability to look like it was meant for the big screen.  There were very few times where I was left to believe that I was sitting on a product that perhaps did not deserve to have made it into wide release.

Outside of that, however, there was very little to consistently praise the movie for.  I equate this movie to a person who is a decent singer, able to hit a lot of notes, but is unable to sustain an angelic voice throughout the entire song.  In cases like that you kind of feel a bit bad for the singer because they are sincerely attempting a task, but just not able to pull it all together for an overall effort that rises above the likes of a tone-deaf fool such as myself.

The first act of the film it is very competent at creating a sense of the characters as well as developing a personality and charm to the Burpo family who live in small town Nebraska.  Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) is the pastor of a small church, a volunteer fireman, coach of the high school wrestling team, and runs a business selling doors.  Kinnear brings to the role a true feel of small town life, the passion of a loving father, and a true to life representation of a down to earth church leader.  Kelly Reilly plays Todd’s wife Sonja, and I do wish I had as much to say about her performance as Kinnear’s, but she, like a lot of the film was hit and miss.

The premise of the film is that four year old Colton Burpo (Connor Corum, whose acting is the embodiment of the on and off nature of the movie) nearly dies from a ruptured appendix and during his emergency surgery claims that he visited heaven and met Jesus.  I am not a father, so I could only imagine what would go through someone’s head to hear such statements coming from their young child’s mouth, especially when they were able to describe what his father and mother were doing during the medical procedure due to him leaving his body and witnessing what was happening around him.

The film spends a lot of time digging into the process and the mental and spiritual debate that Todd endures as he tries to make sense of it all.  His role as a pastor leads him to admit his confusion over everything, which does create some tensions with people in the church who would rather dismiss his son’s claims.  This dimension of the film is part of where it just not able to find the proper key and the song gets slightly cringe-worthy.  While Randall Wallace had a great grasp on establishing the personality of the depicted community, there was an erratic presentation of the more dramatic elements, a factor that in the end kept the movie from fully making any kind of emotional connection to me.  Looking back on Wallace’s We Were Soldiers I can see the same issue being struggled with.

Yesterday I wrote about Captain America: The Winter Soldier and remarked about how the directors were very smart in how they used former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre.  A great director is able to highlight the abilities of the talent they are working with and find ways to escape the short comings of the actors by manipulating their scenes and roles appropriately, and this was something that Wallace lacked during this movie.  There were very definable moments in the film where the mark was missed (such as an off key singing performance by Kelly Reilly), and it felt like if those instances were able to be reworked or left out it could have gone a long way in improving the film.

Of course, it would be no surprise or spoiler that all ends well in the film.  That is just part and parcel to the genre.  Because of the up and down success of the second and third act, it left me with very little investment in how everything unfolds, but in the theatre I was in I was probably in the minority.  The audience really showed appreciation, but even my wife (who liked it a lot) instantly remarked how it was very one dimensional, a summarization that fits perfectly so I must credit her for it.  It never became as heavy handed as some Christian movies, but it also missed out on its chances to really dig into the struggle and doubt that Todd Burpo was dealing with.

That poor person singing on the stage… missing the notes, but being sincere and having a good heart.  They try honestly, so it would just be mean to really be harsh with criticism, but the reality is there; it just was not what it should have been.  Heaven is for Real is not an awful film, it just suffers from being inconsistent enough to not ever become a good film.

Rating – 2.5 out of 4 stars