DVD Review: A Little Bit of Heaven

DVD Reviews, Reviews

Last year, writer Will Reiser wrote the superb 50/50, which was a story based on his own experience with being diagnosed with cancer, and his subsequent battle with the disease that followed. It was a beautifully told story, which was wonderfully acted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and it hit all the right notes along the way. A Little Bit of Heaven attempts to touch upon the same subject matter, although it doesn’t have the same luck in terms of strong storytelling.

The film stars Kate Hudson as Marley, an emotionally stunted woman who’s afraid of commitment and opening herself up emotionally to others. Because of this she has a rotating door of lovers, and tries to never take anything in life too seriously. She’s got a close knit group of friends, and a strong relationship with her sister (Rosemarie DeWitt) and niece (Bailey Bass), but even with them she only looks to joke around and have fun. While that’s how she likes it, things take a turn for the worse early on for Marley. In fact, the realization that something is wrong with her is actually quite poorly done, and can be summed up by borrowing a quote from Anchorman, “Boy, that escalated quickly.”

After being told by her friend out of the blue that she doesn’t look so good, Marley goes to the hospital to get checked out. Here she meets Dr. Julian Goldstein (Gael Garcia Bernal), who she says looks familiar and asks if they’ve slept together before. She says she’s joking, but it comes off awkward, and while it may be her form of flirting, it falls flat. After a few tests time passes and she finds out she has stage four colon cancer. Surgery isn’t an option, and all that’s left is a risky trial, so Marley aims to figure out what she truly wants out of life with the time she has left in an attempt to finally be happy.

So while that’s what the story is about, it really ends up being quite a drawn out process that’s poorly paced for the first hour, which mainly has to do with the extreme lack of chemistry between Hudson and Bernal. The most important part of any romantic comedy, or romance film is the chemistry between the two potential lovers. If the audience doesn’t care if they get together or not, what’s the point? The most memorable lack of chemistry couple that I can think of is Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes in Maid in Manhattan, and this one rivals it.

Their courting sessions that take place throughout the second act are incredibly boring, and Bernal (who’s a great actor from Mexico, who was fantastic in Will Farrell’s Casa de mi Padre) just has zero charisma as the male lead in this film. While I’m not saying another actor could have helped salvage the rushed romance between the two, any chemistry whatsoever would have at least helped make it believable.

While the romance is supposed to be the backbone of the entire story, it fails miserably. Hudson, on the other hand, gives a really strong performance here, and the make-up department did an excellent job making her look sickly throughout. There are some really great emotional moments between Marley and her friends, as well as some solid scenes shared by Hudson and Kathy Bates, who plays Marley’s mother, Beverley. Unfortunately, they’re woven between some poorly paced scenes and this romance angle that feels like it’s being wedged in.

Funny enough, the name of the movie comes from a line said by Peter Dinklage, who plays a male escort in the film. He’s only in the movie for five minutes, but he tells Marley that he does live up to his reputation of being, “a little bit of heaven.” Not surprising, his scene is one of the best in the film, which runs at a hefty two hours in length.

If the romance worked, then maybe this could be justified, but it would still have to be paced better, and reworked a little bit. As it stands, while there are moments that should be character defining, then end up being drawn out and less interesting because of how unbelievable the relationship between the two leads is. There’s a lot of melodrama, and clichés, but in the end it’s just lacking overall.

It was actually surprising to find out in the special features that the film was “in the making” for the past 7-8 years, which is almost unbelievable given the final product. While some may enjoy it for what it is, it never goes above being average, and even though it seems crazy, maybe A Little Bit of Heaven needed a little bit more time in the making.

The film looks solid, with vibrant colours and bright tones throughout for the most part. The audio is also strong, with the dialogue coming through crisp and clean, and the music adding nicely to the film throughout.

Interviews with the Cast and Crew – This feature comes in at a hefty forty minutes in length and sees all the actors and crewmemembers talking about all aspects of the characters, making the film, working with one another and so on.

A Little Bit of Heaven fails in its main goal to create a romance so strong that it helps the female lead realize what she’s been missing out on, and why she should change. Without this needed foundation, the entire movie falters and never becomes anything more than an average film about a topic it never fully delves into.

Alliance Films presents A Little Bit of Heaven. Directed by: Nicole Kassell. Written by: Gren Wells. Starring: Kate Hudson, Gael Garcia Bernal, Kathy Bates, Lucy Punch, Romany Malco, Rosemarie DeWitt, Whoopi Goldberg, Treat Williams, Peter Dinklage. Running time: 106 minutes. Rating: PG. Released: October 23, 2012. Available at Amazon.com.

Brendan Campbell was here when Inside Pulse Movies began, and he’ll be here when it finishes - in 2012, when a cataclysmic event wipes out the servers, as well as everyone else on the planet other than John Cusack and those close to him. Brendan’s the #1 supporter of Keanu Reeves, a huge fan of popcorn flicks and a firm believer that sheer entertainment can take a film a long way. He currently resides in Canada, where, for reasons stated above, he’s attempting to get closer to John Cusack.