It should not call my film-geek status into question that I am unfamiliar with the work of Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior) or Krzysztof Kieslowski (Blue, White, Red). This is a rationalization, but not a fatal one. Tykwer is a relatively young filmmaker; I can be excused for missing his movies. Kieslowski is a bit harder to rationalize, but I’m doing it anyway, because I’m not really that big on foreign cinema. If you feel like being outraged by my ignorance, then save it for the moment when I celebrate Truffaut’s performance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and then cop to having never seen Day for Night or The 400 Blows (or, for that matter, anything else he directed). Hell, even I’m outraged by this.

Heaven is a remarkable movie. The story is a simple one: Philippa (Cate Blanchett) is an Italian schoolteacher devastated by the loss of her husband to a drug overdose. She’s losing students as well. Philippa learns who is at the top of the drug chain in her small town of Turin, and complains to the police. When her complaints are ignored, she builds a homemade bomb and plants it in the office of the drug executive (you can hardly call him a simple dealer). Her bomb detonates as planned, but the target survives; instead, innocent people are killed. Philippa, unaware that her plan has gone awry is arrested. While being interrogated, she learns that she has murdered four innocent people. She collapses at the news; when she recovers, a young officer named Filipo (Giovanni Ribisi) is holding her hand. During the cross-examination, he has fallen in love with her, and devises an escape from jail. She resists, feeling she must do penance for these murders, but he convinces her, and the two of them become fugitives and lovers.

There’s been little question in the past decade that Blanchett is an actress of great talent, capable of disappearing deeply into wildly different characters, but Heaven is perhaps my favorite of her performances. Her transformation in the interrogation scene is a thing of wonder; she begins the cross-examination as a collected, calculating woman — she believes that the failure of the police to take action against the drug lord has forced her hand, and by killing the man, she has done what any responsible citizen would do. When she learns that her bomb did not kill her target, and instead killed a cleaning woman and a father and his two daughters, Blanchett’s slowly dawning comprehension leads to a staggering unraveling. This scene should be shown to acting students everywhere. It’s one thing to cry on demand; it’s another to shatter.

In contrast, Ribisi is an actor who is only at his best when properly directed. His career is a minefield of awkward performances, with a few strong exceptions. Here he plays a gentle, reserved young policeman who still lives at home with his father, who is a respected officer on the force. Ribisi plays Filippo with the quiet knowledge that he will never live up to his father. His love for Philippa becomes a catalyst; she propels him towards his purpose, which he had never acknowledged before. When compared to Ribisi’s usual unstable onscreen personas, Filippo is refreshing and believable.

Heaven’s backstory is an interesting one. Roger Ebert summarized it best in his review:

After the 10 films of “The Decalogue” and the great trilogy “Blue,” “White” and “Red,” the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski and his writing partner, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, began writing a new trilogy: “Heaven,” “Purgatory” and “Hell.” Kieslowski died in 1996 before the project could be filmed. Many good screenplays have died with their authors, but occasionally a director will step forward to rescue a colleague’s work, as Steven Spielberg did with Stanley Kubrick’s “A.I.” and now as Tom Tykwer has done with “Heaven.”

Heaven got a raw deal when it was released in 2002. It was capsized by another movie, the similarly-titled Far From Heaven, which steamed by, leaving dozens of awards and much critical praise in its wake. The latter movie’s controversial subject matter probably didn’t do much to help Heaven reach a larger audience; in fact, when I recommended Heaven to a good friend of mine a couple of years ago, he mistakenly rented “that gay Dennis Quaid movie” and has since laid waste to my enthusiastic movie recommendations.

It’s impossible to write about Heaven without mentioning the soundtrack. It would be inaccurate to call it a score, given that the majority of the pieces here were not composed specifically for the film. But I don’t usually associate the term ’soundtrack’ with a purely instrumental collection of music; when I think of a soundtrack, I think of pop songs. I think of a Cameron Crowe movie. In any case, the music here is strikingly beautiful. Among the selections are several by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, and they’re the ones I’d like to call your attention to. Pärt’s work here is probably not representative of his music on the whole, but it is sparse and lovely, often a simple, quiet duet of the piano and violin. Listen for it; it’s unforgettable. This is a shame, because the soundtrack is unreleased, apparently due to some copyright issues; if you’d like to get your hands on the music, you’ll have to cherrypick from Pärt’s records, and a few others, to do so. I would definitely recommend it, however. Simply for Pärt’s contributions from his album Alina, the reward is very much worth the effort.

‘Rescued’ films often suffer from a clash of vision. Ebert mentioned Artificial Intelligence, which is a prime example of two independently solid visions that simply didn’t make a cohesive movie. Not knowing much about Tykwer’s or Kieslowski’s work is an asset in this case; it’s impossible for me to separate Tykwer’s execution from Kieslowski’s vision. What I can say is that the end result is honest and moving, and very much worth a couple of hours on a rainy night.

Monday, June 12, 2006   

1. JesX wrote:
   June 13th, 2006 at 12:00 pm

   Wow. You ARE brave for admitting this is your first Tykwer. A review of Heaven is a nice blast from the past, none the less. I was completely moved throughout the film. But many others seemed disappointed it wasn’t as ‘edgy’ as his other work. Nice to see a similar opinion.

2. Jg wrote:
   June 13th, 2006 at 12:07 pm

   I was more or less captivated. The film seems to take for granted the fact that its audience is moved; because of that, if the audience isn’t deeply stirred by what they’re seeing, I can understand why the film might fall apart. It’s a mood piece, more or less.

   Lola and Princess have been rotting in my Netflix queue for well over a year. I’m indulging other tastes at the moment, but I’ll get around to them eventually.

3. JesX wrote:
   June 15th, 2006 at 11:27 am

   I certainly can’t criticize. I’m a film junkie who has buried ‘Being Jon Malkovich’ somewhere in my multiple queues. But if you get the inclination, I think ‘Princess’ is worth the bump.

4. Jg wrote:
   June 15th, 2006 at 11:37 am

   As is Malkovich, by all means.

5. LuC wrote:
   June 18th, 2007 at 4:43 pm

   very good movie! i like it! and i think Kieślowski take good movies for young people who looking life-idea! great music and beatifull places. If You need some silence life-idea and love watch this film! GFREATING FROM POLAND

6. ClubPenguinCheats wrote:
   June 2nd, 2010 at 3:53 pm

   I was completely moved throughout the film. But many others seemed disappointed it wasn’t as ‘edgy’ as his other work. Nice to see a similar opinion.

the blog and design portfolio of Jason Gurley. (Learn more.) This site has been around since 1998; me, since 1978. In 2005 I drove 3,000 miles to see a movie. 2009 is pretty aimless so far, but I'm sure I'll get around to something sooner or later.

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