I’m glad Heaven Is For Real exists. For one, the religious right has long been underserved by message-pushing films with minimal complexity. Also, Heaven Is For Real is the movie version of a hug. Though the film can be message heavy, it is still an endearing, joyous celebration of life itself. Sometimes it’s nice to remember that people can be nice and you’re not alone out there.
Based on the book of the same name, Heaven Is For Real focuses on the (unfortunately named) Burpo family from Nebraska. Todd (Greg Kinnear) is about as American as you can get: he’s a handyman and the local minister working several jobs to care of his wife Sonja (Kelly Reilly) and kids Colton (Connor Corum) and Cassie (Lane Styles). Todd and Sonja are going through a rough patch: their bills have been building and Todd had gotten injured at a bad time. The family hits their low when Colton gets very sick and rushed to the hospital. Colton recovers, but he is different: he claims that he spent some time in Heaven. Todd and Sonja shrug it off until Colton starts mentioning things that he would never have been told about. Todd lets these revelations bleed into his ministry, which draws concern from church board members Nancy (Margo Martindale) and Jay (Thomas Haden Church).
Heaven Is For Real’s big strength is its small town understanding. Churches double as social gathering places: the backbone of life in Anytown, USA. As such, the life of a Pastor must be difficult. People constantly projecting their hopes and fears on you and you have to deliver for them early and often. Plus, any sign of weakness or untruth will scare people away. Heaven Is For Real’s most compelling scenes involve Todd discussing his limitations candidly with the church board or a church goer. The movie splendidly takes a very adult approach to the situation by the board challenging the pastor but showing faith in their friend to come through before they make a change. A simpler movie would have made the board the enemy, but Heaven Is For Real decides the only enemy is worldly pressures as long as you have a community behind you for support.
Ostensibly, though, Heaven Is For Real wants to make the world believe in Heaven’s existence. There are a few lengthy sequences of Colton spending some time up there. These scenes are requisitely bright and pretty, but also very pointless. Todd brings up the fact that Heaven is a very subjective place a few times. As such, Heaven Is For Real might have been better served withholding Colton’s images until the very end, leaving it up to the viewer to see what they think he saw. In addition, Heaven Is For Real has some very weak judgmental subplots where Todd is forced to defend his son from non believers. Fortunately, these scenes are few, but they do detract from Heaven Is For Real’s overall power.
Heaven Is For Real boasts some solid character actors to carry what could have been sappy material. Greg Kinnear’s wheelhouse is the everyman. He looks the part, and sells the compassion and world-weariness of a minister of a small town. His scenes with Connor Corum are ok, but he is at his best when alongside Thomas Haden Church and Margo Martindale, who give lots of depth (especially Martindale) to their characters with limited screen time. Kelly Reilly is cute and looks sad well enough when called upon. Connor Corum is very cute as Colton, but he was clearly fed his lines limiting his performance.
Remember that Murphy’s Law day where nothing went right for you? Heaven Is For Real will help you wash that away. Regardless of what your belief system is, the relentless optimism will sweep you up and leave you in a better place. I don’t know if heaven is for real, but Heaven Is For Real does make me believe a better world can be for real.