Heaven Is For Real ** (2014, Greg Kinnear, Kelly Reilly, Thomas Haden Church, Margo Martindale) – Movie Review

Greg Kinnear stars as real-life American small-town preacher and father whose four-year-old son (Connor Corum) nearly dies of appendicitis in hospital but experiences an actual trip to Heaven, where he meets Jesus, a young version of his grandfather and even his stillborn sister.

The boy recovers, and bit by bit reveals his incredible story, offering various pieces of corroborations of it, speaking matter-of-factly about things he couldn’t possibly know, including things that happened before his birth. From Heaven he’s seen his father shouting at God in the hospital chapel while his mother distraught about him is in the waiting room.

Burpo and his wife (Kelly Reilly) are much troubled and it affects the pastor’s ability to do his job, leading church leaders (Thomas Haden Church, Margo Martindale) to threaten to look elsewhere for their leader. Somehow the Burpos have to find the courage and conviction to believe the boy and go on to share their son’s extraordinary, life-changing trip with the parish and eventually the world.

It’s the fourth film as director of the screenwriter Randall Wallace, Oscar nominee for his screenplay of Braveheart and Razzie nominee for his screenplay of Pearl Harbor, as well as writer-director of The Man in the Iron Mask and We Were Soldiers.

Wallace turns in a very fine-looking, lovingly crafted film, admirably paced and convincingly scripted with credible characters, situations and dialogue. His screenplay is written with Chris Parker, based on Burpo’s #1 New York Times best-selling book Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. Non-believers would probably find the film a laughable torment, but they’d hardly be interested in seeing it. Christians may certainly find it uplifting, inspiring even, but it is preaching to the converted.

Nevertheless, it’s an intriguing film. Even if you reject the boy’s story, and therefore the film’s belief in it, out of hand, it’s interesting to see these characters and how they react. The acting is stupendous, especially under the circumstances. Greg Kinnear is outstanding – what a fine actor he’s become over the years!

Surrey-born Kelly Reilly is nearly as good, totally credible as an American housewife, and Thomas Haden Church and Margo Martindale move from being charming to chilly and back persuasively, and little Connor Corum acts his little socks off like he’s been in the business 40 years.

Of course the film doesn’t really provide enough evidence that actually Heaven Is For Real. I don’t think that’s its point. The intention is to point the cameras and focus clearly on people undergoing a crisis of conscience and practicality too. And it does that really well.

On a low $12million budget, it took an astonishing $87million at the US box office.

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http://derekwinnert.com/we-were-soldiers-mel-gibson-chris-klein-2002-classic-film-review-1141/

http://derekwinnert.com/the-man-in-the-iron-mask-1998-leonardo-dicaprio-classic-film-review-1035/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/