I know, I know, people will say I’m just “being a hater” for not liking this film, and I’m sure I’ll get screeches of “liberal!” “Anti-Christian!” “elitist!” that come with any pan of a religious-themed movie. It doesn’t help that so many of them are bad, and that the audience for them doesn’t care if they’re good or bad, just like a Tyler Perry movie…which themselves are usually religious, coincidence?
But “Heaven is For Real” isn’t just a religious film, it’s clear from the beginning that it’s been made to pander to every red state value whole-heartedly. The central character is a preacher (played by Greg Kinnear, who has a real talent for passing majority-smugness off as underdog-humbleness, not unlike some real preachers), but not just a preacher; he has a construction business (a preacher with a business=yes! working with your hands=yes!), and coaches an adult softball team, and does something with his son’s team, and is a volunteer fireman! This is a pretty busy guy, and maybe that’s why the movie’s central “celestial encounter” doesn’t even begin to take place until a third of the way through the movie, so for over a half hour we’re just watching scenes of red-state values play out. [Small towns are awesome! A banker can be your best friend! There’s a couple of non-whites in the background, but not too many! The wife—played by Kelly Reilly as the type of bumblefuck bohemian “cool” Christian “hippie” girl who can really rock a denim skirt—should say as little as possible, and be seen several times literally covering up her mouth by putting it behind her children; oh, and she should definitely worry about the husband’s role as provider, but never even consider getting a job herself.]
Still, the real juice—and marketing hook—of the film is when that little boy comes back from an appendectomy saying he went to heaven. Then the central conflict becomes how many people will believe him and how long it will take, especially given that he didn’t flat-line, and people are curiously unsuspicious of his father’s role in this.
Now…a decent film or even a film that is halfway conscious would at least ask the question: could a father who’s a preacher be feeding the boy the story? E-s-p-e-c-i-a-l-l-y since the movie goes to great pains to show that the father is having severe money problems early in the story. The fact that a preacher who’s having money troubles just so happens to have a son that goes to heaven during a relatively uncomplicated surgery, and then he gets to write a million dollar best selling book about it—well, the movie doesn’t even bring up that it’s coincidental…at best.
There’s a reason these films are defended so ferociously by the converted: because the don’t really hold up to anyone who’s not watching from the choir. Though Thomas Haden Church and Margo Martindale do solid work, as always, in supporting roles, and I haven’t seen “God Is NOT Dead,” but if I had, I’m sure this movie would look nuanced and Scorsese-level by comparison. Grade: D+