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ldhensonSadly, I think it's the latter.
Perhaps it's just not my type of movie, but from minute one I couldn't get into it.
So, yes, the movie does have Giovanni Ribisi in it. In uniform. Speaking Italian. Lots of Italian. That's practically worth the price of admission right there.
I've found a useful trick with my DVD player: if I'm not interested in watching a scene but still want to get the gist of it, I can put it on 2x FF with the subtitles turned on. Things will whiz by in half the time and I can catch nearly all the dialogue at the bottom of the screen, provided I'm not watching something snappy and wordy like Sports Night, in which case I likely wouldn't be fast-forwarding anyway.
I started watching Heaven at normal speed. Then, realizing I wasn't connecting to any of the other characters, I started 2x'ing between Ribisi's scenes. When I started fast-forwarding through the entire thing, regardless of who was on-screen, I knew it was a lost cause.
Here's the problem. The cinematography is beautiful, the music appropriately moody, the lighting rich, the city and countryside lovely, and Blanchett and Ribisi both luminous (c.f. The Gift). But I didn't, you know, actually like anyone.
Blanchett's character Philippa is nearly impossible to warm up to. Her first act is to deposit a live bomb in the office of her target; issues about the morality of her killing the drug dealer aside, a bomb is possibly one of the worst ways to do it, and anyone with a scrap of wit knows that. Even had the bomb stayed where it was supposed to, there's virtually no way to pinpoint your target with one. What if people walk into his office? What if he happens to step out? What if it takes down a supporting wall, causing other parts of the building to collapse and injure god knows how many innocent bystanders? What if it blows out the window and rains glass shards onto the street below? What if, since it's at floor level, it takes out the office floor beneath? And so on, and so on.
At any rate, innocents do wind up being killed, setting in motion the remainder of the movie, but here's the problem with that: DUH. The fact that her plan was almost guaranteed to fail due to her own wholesale lack of foresight pretty much sucks any chance of sympathy out of the movie within the first five minutes. Her breakdown when she finds out who was killed is powerfully acted by Blanchett, but lady, it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't pulled such a bone-headed stunt in the first place. Staggering irresponsibility kind of cancels out one's martyred remorse.
What's worse is that she never pays for it. Oh sure, she says she will. Then why does she continue to be on the run? The police force is corrupt, but what, as a murderer of multiple innocents, you're still too good for them? It's one thing if your movie character gets away with something, but another for her to be painted in a quasi-saintly light in the process. Because, remember, bone-headed stunt.
Ribisi's character starts off quiet and likable, if a little troubled, but as he begins to fall for Philippa's, dunno, strength and beauty and is the only one to truly see her pure heart or whatever, he, too, starts to grow tiresome. Exploring a character who falls for someone who isn't entirely good for him can be fascinating, but it doesn't entirely work here, as I get the feeling we're supposed to cheer on Philippa, and by extension cheer on Filippo for his unflagging support of her, and see above couple of paragraphs.
The whole "two becoming one" thing just pushed it over the edge for me. Poetic and haunting, or just plain creepy? In a movie whose first half is fairly grounded in reality (albeit a very slow-moving reality), this sort of heavy-handed imagery only served to leave me groaning in disbelief and lunging for the FF button. The Italian countryside is beautiful, but I had no desire to watch interminable minutes of them strolling leisurely away from the pursuing authorities, all the while laughing alike, walking alike, and at times even talking alike. What a wild duet.
Oh, yeah, I did what must have been the final dozen minutes at 4x speed. Honestly, not a lot happens.
Perhaps it's just not my type of movie, but from minute one I couldn't get into it.
So, yes, the movie does have Giovanni Ribisi in it. In uniform. Speaking Italian. Lots of Italian. That's practically worth the price of admission right there.
I've found a useful trick with my DVD player: if I'm not interested in watching a scene but still want to get the gist of it, I can put it on 2x FF with the subtitles turned on. Things will whiz by in half the time and I can catch nearly all the dialogue at the bottom of the screen, provided I'm not watching something snappy and wordy like Sports Night, in which case I likely wouldn't be fast-forwarding anyway.
I started watching Heaven at normal speed. Then, realizing I wasn't connecting to any of the other characters, I started 2x'ing between Ribisi's scenes. When I started fast-forwarding through the entire thing, regardless of who was on-screen, I knew it was a lost cause.
Here's the problem. The cinematography is beautiful, the music appropriately moody, the lighting rich, the city and countryside lovely, and Blanchett and Ribisi both luminous (c.f. The Gift). But I didn't, you know, actually like anyone.
Blanchett's character Philippa is nearly impossible to warm up to. Her first act is to deposit a live bomb in the office of her target; issues about the morality of her killing the drug dealer aside, a bomb is possibly one of the worst ways to do it, and anyone with a scrap of wit knows that. Even had the bomb stayed where it was supposed to, there's virtually no way to pinpoint your target with one. What if people walk into his office? What if he happens to step out? What if it takes down a supporting wall, causing other parts of the building to collapse and injure god knows how many innocent bystanders? What if it blows out the window and rains glass shards onto the street below? What if, since it's at floor level, it takes out the office floor beneath? And so on, and so on.
At any rate, innocents do wind up being killed, setting in motion the remainder of the movie, but here's the problem with that: DUH. The fact that her plan was almost guaranteed to fail due to her own wholesale lack of foresight pretty much sucks any chance of sympathy out of the movie within the first five minutes. Her breakdown when she finds out who was killed is powerfully acted by Blanchett, but lady, it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't pulled such a bone-headed stunt in the first place. Staggering irresponsibility kind of cancels out one's martyred remorse.
What's worse is that she never pays for it. Oh sure, she says she will. Then why does she continue to be on the run? The police force is corrupt, but what, as a murderer of multiple innocents, you're still too good for them? It's one thing if your movie character gets away with something, but another for her to be painted in a quasi-saintly light in the process. Because, remember, bone-headed stunt.
Ribisi's character starts off quiet and likable, if a little troubled, but as he begins to fall for Philippa's, dunno, strength and beauty and is the only one to truly see her pure heart or whatever, he, too, starts to grow tiresome. Exploring a character who falls for someone who isn't entirely good for him can be fascinating, but it doesn't entirely work here, as I get the feeling we're supposed to cheer on Philippa, and by extension cheer on Filippo for his unflagging support of her, and see above couple of paragraphs.
The whole "two becoming one" thing just pushed it over the edge for me. Poetic and haunting, or just plain creepy? In a movie whose first half is fairly grounded in reality (albeit a very slow-moving reality), this sort of heavy-handed imagery only served to leave me groaning in disbelief and lunging for the FF button. The Italian countryside is beautiful, but I had no desire to watch interminable minutes of them strolling leisurely away from the pursuing authorities, all the while laughing alike, walking alike, and at times even talking alike. What a wild duet.
Oh, yeah, I did what must have been the final dozen minutes at 4x speed. Honestly, not a lot happens.
