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Heaven

Play trailer 1:45 Poster for Heaven R Released Oct 4, 2002 1h 36m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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73% Tomatometer 88 Reviews 76% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Cate Blanchett stars as Philippa, a British teacher living in Turin, Italy, who has seen many friends, including her husband, fall victim to drug overdoses. Philippa has repeatedly contacted the police with information about Turin's biggest drug dealer but, complicit in his dealings, they have completely ignored her. So Philippa decides to dole out her own form of justice with a home-made bomb -- setting her off on a journey from young widow to fugitive on the run.
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Heaven

Heaven

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Critics Consensus

The story is the weakest link in this gorgeous and well-acted film.

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Critics Reviews

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Empire Magazine Rated: 4/5 Dec 30, 2006 Full Review Eleanor Ringel Cater Atlanta Journal-Constitution Its compelling mix of trial movie, escape movie and unexpected fable ensures the film never feels draggy. Rated: B Nov 4, 2002 Full Review Kathy Cano-Murillo Arizona Republic Heaven doesn't exactly reign on high, but it does make for a soul-searching experience. Rated: 3/5 Nov 2, 2002 Full Review David Walsh World Socialist Web Site A great deal of commotion is organized to conceal the fact that the filmmaker has little to say about contemporary life in general or even his own individual life and circumstances. Feb 16, 2021 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Even the distresses of abandoning hope and wishing to pay for sins exhibit an artistry rarely found in these kinds of storylines (the kind involving vigilante justice). Rated: 8/10 Sep 29, 2020 Full Review Michael Dequina TheMovieReport.com Casts a poetic, otherworldly romantic spell. Rated: 3.5/4 Dec 30, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Brilliant movie. It had good, directing, acting, plot, cinematography, music, in fact it had the lot. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Utterly perfect film. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Let me praise the beautiful camera work. I got mush pleasure watching it with boxxy software. Italy looks beautiful through the lens here. It was definitely made by a great film maker. Some may say the pace is irrelevant. It isn't. The central story of intrigue and suspense is completely supplanted. Every time the camera takes the extra 2 or 3 seconds on a beautiful shot is like a 2 or 3 seconds commercial. In a very short order, the movie can ground to a halt and disrupting any flow it may achieve. This is half a film with a lot of fillers. It needs an editor, and a more meaty 3rd act. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Heaven is a soul searching experience about revenge and the heavy price it extracts. But it also strives to suave the wound through an exercise of love and loyalty. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Blanchett is riveting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member "Heaven" was supposed to be a part of something bigger. It was planned to be the beginning of an ambitious trilogy written and directed by Krzysztof Kie?lowski, whose "Three Colors" trio of the mid-1990s has been endlessly hailed by film snobs as some of the finest films ever made. "Heaven," predictably, would be continued by "Hell" and "Purgatory"- but before such high concept plans could be properly executed, Kie?lowski died in 1996 following unsuccessful open-heart surgery. He left behind screenplays for "Heaven" and "Hell," but it will never be known how he would have directed the individual pieces of material himself, or how "Purgatory," never to see the light of day, would have compared to its predecessors. But "Heaven" is not the kind of introduction that leaves us clamoring for more - whereas Kie?lowski's "Blue" was a gorgeously melancholic prelude to a trilogy of emotive masterpieces, "Heaven" bears the feeling of a half-planned experiment that rides high on mood and performance, struggling in its impact due to a fundamental lack of plot. Its cathexis is virile. But its storyline is contrived at best, hollow at worst, and the preposterous relationship portrayed between its leading characters inspires more mystification than empathy. "Heaven's" misconceptions, though, have nothing to do with its actors, who manage to emote persuasively in a movie that belittles them. It stars Cate Blanchett as Philippa, a British schoolteacher in Italy whose inherent good nature has been aggravated by the recent death of her husband. Knowing that it is the result of dealings with a local, powerful drug dealer - many of her young students have met similarly dire fates - Philippa has since done everything she can to kickstart a police investigation in the matter. But it's been a year of letters and calls to the government without any response; the law could be doing something, but are blatantly ignoring the truth. Philippa suspects they could be a part of the problem, too. Distraught and unsure of what else to do, she turns to the drastic and plants a bomb in the high rise office of the dealer, whose entrepreneurial status has made him basically impervious to her accusations. But the plan goes awry when the explosion instead kills a quartet of innocents, leaving the predator unhurt and Philippa accused of murder and assumed to be affiliated with a terrorist organization. During the interrogation process, though, she catches the eye of Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), a young officer/translator who sympathizes with her claims. From there does "Heaven" lose its potential, surrendering to the stakes of a preposterous romance and morphing into a political thriller that doesn't have the hubris to lead us to a satisfyingly ferocious conclusion. In the ambit of a traditional movie, it would be unafraid to more thoroughly explore the issues of governmental corruption it so inauthentically attempts to characterize; it would also potentially ditch the hurried and incredulous romantic angle. But it's pretentious arthouse that I don't much care for and don't much care to take the time to praise. It likes itself more than it likes its audience, and without Kie?lowski's textured directorial eye to make it something other than arty fluff, I'd prefer you swim in the warm, exhilarating waters of his "Three Colors" trilogy than fly up to his supposed heaven. Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run") does his best replacing Kie?lowski in the director's chair, and Blanchett is an impressive successor to the Irene Jacob, Juliette Binoche type. But what a bother it is to walk through the inferior when the superior is as easy to access. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Heaven

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Cate Blanchett stars as Philippa, a British teacher living in Turin, Italy, who has seen many friends, including her husband, fall victim to drug overdoses. Philippa has repeatedly contacted the police with information about Turin's biggest drug dealer but, complicit in his dealings, they have completely ignored her. So Philippa decides to dole out her own form of justice with a home-made bomb -- setting her off on a journey from young widow to fugitive on the run.
Director
Tom Tykwer
Producer
Anthony Minghella, Maria Köpf, Frédérique Dumas-Zajdela, William Horberg, Stefan Arndt
Screenwriter
Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Distributor
Miramax Films
Production Co
Miramax, Mirage Enterprises, X-Filme Creative Pool, Star Edizioni Cinematografiche
Rating
R (Scene of Sexuality)
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 4, 2002, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
May 23, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$774.3K
Runtime
1h 36m
Sound Mix
Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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