A Little Trip to Heaven
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.22 You Save: $5.76 (58%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of A Little Trip to Heaven
Movie Review: Wonderful Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Unlike some of the other reviewers I thought this was a great movie. The scenery was beautiful, acting excellent and I can't believe the number of people who didn't understand the story. It was fully revealed who the real Calvin was and in the end he tells his sister who actually died in the crash. It was revealed early on that he wasn't really her husband. As as for Frederick, look closely at the gravestone scene and the name on it. The insurance agent may have been protecting the agency's interest in the beginning but how he breaks from that and what he does for Thor is shear martyrdom. I highly recommend it but guess I must warn you to closely watch for all the clues.Movie Review: The bleak setting is its selling point...
Summary: 4 Stars
...honestly, if this movie had been set in the suburbs of Chicago or LA or some other popular, overdone location, I wouldn't have liked it nearly as much. I wanted to take photos of most of the scenes - the barren fields, delapidated buildings and gray sky. Wow. I'm guessing it was supposed to take place in Minnesota or North Dakota.
I was kinda confused about the identities of Frederick vs. Kelvin, but overall it was a compelling story. Julia Stiles has really matured since I first saw her in 10 Things I Hate About You (she was excellent in that too though, but in a different way). I still wonder about the blood running down her leg in one of her first scenes. Was that also done by Fred?
Whitaker was fantastic as well, his character being quite likable. Shy, awkward, principled..trying to do the right thing for his company (to a point, of course) and his clients. Also liked his description of what it's like to burn to death - your eyeballs cracking like glass, your body fat bubbling out, etc. I could empathize with his character when his boss, played by Peter Coyote, makes him go on the road trips because he doesn't have a wife and kids. It's so rude how people assume that you have tons of free time if you're single. Married people get most of the breaks in life, but what else is new.
So anyway - "Thor" and "Isolde" seemed like fairly sterotypical names for people of Scandinavian-American origin, but I guess that all adds to the atmosphere.
Movie Review: Giant Story in a "Little Movie"
Summary: 4 Stars
Forest Whitaker is one of the most diverse, brave and fascinating actors we will ever see.
Unlike more famous, if not as popular actors like John Wayne, Mel Gibson and even one of my favorites, Clint Eastwood; no one in movies has played a greater variety of fascinatingly oddball and complex characters so well.
Even the "Last King of Scotland", for which Mr. Whitaker earned a long overdue Oscar, did not present the acting challenge this grim and complex little gem presented.
A morality tale that's high on great ensemble acting, deep and profound ethical and moral considerations, and a Julia Stiles at the top of her considerable acting game; this movie will keep you engrossed from surprising start to stunning finish.
Peter Coyote's brief but memorable performance reminds you of the Konstantin Stanislavsky (the inventor of the famous Stanislavsky Method) quote, "There are no small parts, only small actors."
I finally decide to get my own copy so I wouldn't be at the mercy of a cable movie schedule with no appreciation of what a fascinating little gem movie is.
Jeremy Renner finally got his Oscar for "the Hurt Locker."
One of these days, Julia Stiles and Peter Coyote will be similarly rewarded, I'm sure!
Movie Review: A little bit complicated
Summary: 4 Stars
I had a little trouble in elucidating this story, but was drawn in despite this. I found myself backing up a few times to try and sort out who was related to whom and how. Insurance agent Abe Holt (played by the talented Forest Whitaker) is an ace in finding a way to get out of paying death benefits and other insurance claims. Has he met his match when a sinister young man makes a car crash look like an accident? Abe is suspicious, but he's the only one in town who thinks the burnt body isn't Calvin, or that the wreck was staged. Uncovering the facts may get Abe in deeper than he'd ever intended. This is a good thriller that is a challenge to figure out.
Chrissy K. McVay - Author
Movie Review: A Dark Story in a Dark Place Without the Benefit of a Director's Enlightenment
Summary: 3 Stars
A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN is a strange little Indie film by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, a young director with some very fine ideas but with a script (written both by the director and Edward Martin Weinman) 'that is so spongy that the impact of the film relies on the considerable qualities of the cinematic images. Filmed primarily in Iceland with some scenes in Hastings, Minnesota, the mood is dank and dark and cold - and so is the story.
We first meet insurance investigator ('adjustor') Abe Holt as he listens to his boss Frank (Peter Coyote) explain to a new widow why she will not receive full death benefits because the insurance company took photos of her husband smoking, the apparent cause of his death. Abe just sits in the background but we know he is in tune with the fraudulent activity of the insurance company. Almost immediately he is assigned to a new case: an ex-con with a million dollar life insurance policy has apparently been found dead in a car crash burned beyond recognition. Abe drives to the tiny snowy desolate village where his questions of the townsfolk reveal that the victim was Kelvin Anderson, the brother of Isold (Julia Stiles) who is married to a low life type named Fred (Jeremy Renner), a man who we have seen in flashbacks as the one responsible for arranging the car crash and setting the car on fire. Abe sneaks around the town, spies on Isold, and becomes involved in the investigation in more ways than the honest one. It is the interplay of the three - Abe, Fred, and Isold - that provide the intrigue and mystery of the apparent framed insurance scam.
The screenplay is so full of holes that it is difficult to follow the case's development. The actors are superb artists: Forest Whitaker made this film almost simultaneously with his Oscar winning 'The Last King of Scotland' yet here his character is plagued by an affected accent and by the lack of substance that might make us care about his plight; Julia Stiles does her best with the little she is given to do and Jeremy Renner is convincingly menacing without any factors that make us find him worth caring about. The supporting actors (Joanna Scanlan as a sleazy bartender, Iddo Goldberg and Philip Jackson as the police, Alfred Harmsworth as the 'son' of Isold, and Vladas Bagdonas as the coroner) actually fare better than the leads as far as material available.
The strong aspect of the film is the visual imagery, due to the decisions of picture composition by Kormákur and cinematographer Óttar Guđnason and Mugison's musical is apropos for the mood. But the film remains grounded and a bit on the confusing side because of the director's lack of unity. One wonders why Whitaker, Stiles, and Renner signed on to this little film. Grady Harp, March 07
More Movie Reviews:
1 2
1 2