Heaven

Tom Tykwer's films are about supposedly hopeless cases being saved in miraculous circumstances. His previous two, Run Lola Run and The Princess and the Warrior, meld stunning visuals (who can forget that opening scene to the latter film), intense, sometimes unbelievable storylines, and a bit of magic. He's trying to do the same in this film -- a woman convicted of a crime is helped to escape by a policeman who falls in love with her -- but for a reason I can't put my finger on it doesn't work as well. This is his first non-German language film (it's in Italian and English), and also the first time he's directing a script not his own, which could be a large part of it. He seems to be trying too hard here, and our empathy for the main characters isn't strong enough to make us want the ending he gives us. Cate Blanchett, however, is marvelous. Her revelation scene proves what a natural and believable actor she is. Both she and Giovanni Ribisi have no English or American accent (that I could discern) when they speak Italian, without which the film would have been more unbelievable than it already is.

year: 2002
length: 96 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246677/combined