Heaven is for Real
Director: Randall Wallace
Talent: Greg Kinnear, Kelly Reilly, Thomas Haden Church, Connor Corum
Release Date: 13th June 2014
Set in a wholesome community that has the right, comfortable colour ratio of white to other families, lives a loveable (white) pastor (Greg Kinnear). When his four year old son (Connor Corum) falls ill the town is joined in prayer but his recovery is marred by his certainty that he’s visited heaven.
This is shoulder-shrugging Christianity, pretending to play the cynic in a poor attempt to hide its crude, evangelical modus operandi. It’s arrogant in its convictions, unsubtle in its motivations and cloddish in its delivery. The ridiculous crisis at its heart is beset by shimmering angels and even a walk with (lip-service slightly ethnic) Jesus himself. Meaning a film like this could have traveled the ‘so bad it’s good’ line if it wasn’t so dangerous. Like a *Watchtower* flip-book, it’s a barrage of wholesome images with a devilishly coercive intent and as a piece of Americana it’s illuminating, because this is a razorblade in an apple. Luckily it’s blunted by poor performances and direction or it might tread the line of being truly scary.
Words: Eoghain Meakin
