The film’s great achievement is in creating and maintaining a certain mood, a tone that zings with tension and with layers of drama, with contextualised characters and with instantly recognisable humanity.
Heaven (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:86
Fresh:63
Rotten:23
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: The story is the weakest link in this gorgeous and well-acted film.
Synopsis:
The raw emotions, deadly choices and mysterious impulses that surround the search for a state of grace come to the fore in HEAVEN, the last film written by the late master filmmaker Krysztof...
The raw emotions, deadly choices and mysterious impulses that surround the search for a state of grace come to the fore in HEAVEN, the last film written by the late master filmmaker Krysztof Kieslowski and writing partner Kryzsztof Piesiewicz (the makers of "Blue," "White" and "Red.") Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run," "Winter Sleepers," "The Princess and the Warrior") directs, bringing his intense visual energy to the taut, lyrical, multi-layered story of an ordinary woman who takes divine justice into her own hands.
Academy Award nominee Cate Blanchett ("Elizabeth," "The Talented Mr. Ripley") 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 that moves through retribution and redemption, innocence and crime, hope and desire as she goes from young widow to fugitive on the run.
When Philippa’s plans go horrifically wrong, and she is taken into custody, she feels she has little left to live for . . . until she meets Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), a young police officer. Deeply drawn to Philippa, Filippo becomes her mysterious soulmate and unexpected partner on the lam, as both search for a brief, radiant idyll in a corrupt world. This is a luminous and haunting love story layered, in the tradition of Kieslowski, over a probing exploration of the modern world and its moral choices. -- © 2001 Miramax
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Remo Girone, Stefania Rocca
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Remo Girone, Stefania Rocca, Alessandro Sperduti, Mattia Sbragia
Director: Tom Tykwer
Director: Tom Tykwer
Screenwriter: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Producer: Anthony Minghella, Maria Koepf, Sydney Pollack, Stefan Horberg, Stefan Amdt, Manuela Stehr
Studio: Miramax Films
Reviews for Heaven
For those who are open to a languorous meditation on love and justice, Heaven is a rewarding, if slightly labored, experience.
while Franka Potente fans may keenly feel her absence in this film, the addition of the absolutely phenomenal Cate Blanchett more than balances the books.
It was gutsy for Tykwer to finish the work of a genius. He’s mostly successful.
A very interesting film and, if you are a thinking person, it will haunt you for some time after you have seen it.
Heaven, beguiling as it is...eventually glides into the borderlands of pure mumbo jumbo.
Its themes are also more relevant and understandable, but Heaven is still premeditated, conceptual, and vigilant.
This dramatic thriller stretches credibility so often that it almost seems more like a fantasy.
What begins as a conventional thriller evolves into a gorgeously atmospheric meditation on life-changing chance encounters.
Latest News for Heaven
April 01, 2002:
Heaven continues Tykwer's theme of love conquers crime. ![]()
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February 06, 2002:
Finally, a trilogy that doesn't involve hobbits or Jar-Jars. ![]()
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