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Heaven I had extremely high hopes for this film, after being mesmerized by Tykwer's Run Lola Run and The Princess and the Warrior. I was severely disappointed. The story sounds promising: a young woman places a bomb in a businessman's office, intending to kill him. She claims he is selling drugs to children, including those she teaches, as a sideline to his normal business, and she believes that ridding the planet of him is a worthy occupation. However, due to an unfortunate turn of events, the bomb instead kills four innocents, including a father and his two young daughters. A good beginning to a thought-provoking film on morality (which is at least part of what Run Lola Run was, underneath the shock of bright-red hair and pulsing soundtrack). When giving her testimony to the police, Phillipa is believed to be part of a terrorist organisation, except by one young officer, who helps her to escape. Still has possibilities. But then the action stops entirely. I'm not saying nothing else happens. A couple things kind of happen. But after this point, the pace slows to a crawl, the characters do little but look at each other or out into space and appear contemplative, yet they've not given us anything for themselves or us to think about, and whatever message Tykwer had in mind slips away unseen while we're waiting for the characters to do something. Anything. In a way, this is merely continuing a trend for Tykwer. Run Lola Run was kinetic...frenetic, even. Its movement is frantic and nearly constant. The Princess and the Warrior is much slower by comparison. There's no running. Action is limited. And yet, it is mesmerizing, as I said above. It's impossible to take your eyes from the screen. In Heaven, I took my eyes off the screen a few times, and when I turned them back, the picture hadn't changed. There is a difference between slow-and-hypnotic and slow-and-deadly-boring. Princess is the first, Heaven the second. It is also true that Tykwer was working from his own script in the first two films, but directed Heaven from a script by the late Krystof Koslowski (Blue, White), a highly regarded filmmaker before his death. It's possible that Heaven suffers from A.I. syndrome--a film caught between two great filmmakers, unable to find its own voice. There are many beautiful visual moments in the film. A silouetted tree with the new lovers meeting underneath as the sun sets behind them. Cate Blanchett's near-perfect profile against a tile, defeated and alone. A helicopter pulling straight up, until it fades into nothingness in a deep blue sky. But gorgeous shots alone do not make a compelling movie. There must be something of substance behind them, some reason for the shots to exist. Heaven has nothing to support them. ** out of **** Page last updated 9/30/04. |
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