Starring: Greg Kinnear, Kelly Reilly, Thomas Hayden Church, Margot Martindale
Distributor: Independent
Runtime: 99 mins. Reviewed in May 2014
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Many people have read the 2010 religious bestseller, Heaven is for Real, by Todd Burpo, the story of his family experiences in 2003. It was on the bestseller list for a long time – and this film version spent several weeks in the box office top 10 in the United States.
However, this is very much a niche audience film. It is for an audience that values religious experience, in the Christian tradition, especially the Bible-based preaching churches with their often literal interpretation of the texts. The tone of the film is particularly American in the sense that it wears its heart on its sleeve, something which even sympathetic audiences from outside the United States might find cloying at times.
And, one piece of consumer advice would be “not for the non-religious and definitely not for atheists”.
The film was adapted from the novel by its director, Randall Wallace. Wallace achieved some success with his screenplay in 1995 for Braveheart. He went on to direct the Vietnam war film, We Were Soldiers, as well as the Leonardo Di Caprio Man in the Iron Mask. Wallace has solid Hollywood credentials as do his cast, led by the always sympathetic and reliable, Greg Kinnear. The British Kelly Reilly plays Kinnear’s wife.
The opening is rather mysterious, a young artist in Lithuania painting a picture of an eye. Then the action transfers to Nebraska. It is only after an hour or so that one remembers there has been no further explanation about the Lithuanian girl – but that is kept until the end. We see Todd Burpo and his hands-on work around the town of Imperial, Nebraska, his coaching a wrestling team at the school, with his family at home, and then he is revealed as the local pastor, in a church where he appeals appears casually in open-neck shirt, sleeves rolled up, and ordinary down-to-earth character. His wife leads the choir.
As the film builds up this portrait of an American family – if Norman Rockwell had lived to the present and had made movies instead of painting pictures, he might have portrayed a family like this. It is not as if they are perfect, and they have great difficulties in making ends meet, but they are a sympathetic, struggling family.
For the readers of the book, they may be waiting for attention to come to the fore with the four-year-old son, Colton Burpo (Connor Corum). Those who don’t know the story will be surprised that the rest of the film is the backup of the title, Colton having surgery for his appendix, very ill but not having a near death experience, explaining to his father and then to others that he had seen heaven and had met Jesus.
Audiences may be uncomfortable with these experiences of a four-year-old, especially as they are repeated and become more precise, Colton knowing more about his family, even of a miscarriage and of his grandfather’s name, than he could possibly know. He is blithely, and cutely, unaware of any problems with this.
This challenges his father’s understanding of religious experience and tests his faith. His wife treats it as a mystery and does not try to understand until she too is challenged by some of the information. Todd has been a fine preacher, people responding to his earthy gospel explanations and inspiration, but finds that he cannot preach. He has friends in the town who are sympathetic to him, but some of the members of the Church Board have real difficulties. Audiences listening to the discussion at a Board meeting will sympathise with Nancy (Margot Martindale) who has lost her 19-year-old son in war and voices some of the difficulties that the audience may have. She also says to Todd in his anguish, “you don’t have to save the world, it’s already been saved”. The screenplay does not entirely shy away from rational critiques and challenges.
There are more things in many people’s philosophy than people might be dreamed of. So what is this kind of heavenly experience for a young child, which could serve as a witness to transcendence, to God and to heaven? One of the insights that Todd Burpo has in preaching about his son’s experience of heaven comes from the words from the Lord’s Prayer, “on earth as it is in heaven”. If we look at the heavenly things we experience on earth, then heaven could be like this, for real.
Finally, it is back to the girl in Lithuania and her paintings, especially of Jesus, whom she continues to paint – actually, an interesting interpretation of the face of Jesus, not exactly Semitic, but striking in its way.
On the way out of the film, I heard some older people saying they were glad that they had seen the film and that it was worthwhile.
12 Random Films…
