Heaven is for Real (2014)

Heaven is for Real

Warning: the following review contains spoilers

            In 2010, Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent released “Heaven is for Real,” a book about Burpo’s son Colton’s journey to heaven during emergency surgery. Burpo documents his son’s description of heaven and the various things he saw there, including Jesus himself. On April 16, 2014, Randall Wallace’s film adaption of Burpo’s famous book will hit the big screen.

            The very idea of making a movie about a little boy’s visit to heaven is enough to get one laughed out of Hollywood. However, when Randall Wallace—known for writing Braveheart, Pearl Harbor, and the screenplay for We Were Soldiers—sits in the director’s chair, Hollywood has no choice but to pay attention. America, however, is another story. Millions of Americans love Wallace’s movies, but most would be surprised to learn that he wrote them. Directors’ names may mean a lot to Hollywood, but most Americans don’t know Randall Wallace from William Wallace. Most people watch a movie because it looks entertaining, not because its director is famous. Entertainment is certainly present in Heaven is for Real, but if the entertainment is the gift, few will appreciate the wrapping paper. Despite what polls may say, most Americans are not true Christians, and Heaven is for Real is a very Christian, Bible-centered film—which will hurt it when it hits theaters. In today’s America, science is in and spirituality is out—most Americans will find entertainment not in the film’s humor, but in the fact that someone in Hollywood is trying to sell the idea God exists and that heaven really is for real. Potential viewers looking for that sort of entertainment can save their ticket money and browse the YouTube comments section. Identifying Heaven is for Real as a Christian movie will cause most potential viewers to spend their money on other better-promoted and more promising films like Transcendence, arriving in theaters on April 17.

            Despite the best efforts of its acclaimed director, Heaven is for Real expertly manages to disappoint in several ways. Multiple scenes include Colton Burpo entering heaven, looking upon a choir of angels, and seeing Jesus. The bad CGI featured in each of these scenes is enough to make one cringe, and the even worse edges where the computer-animated sky meets the real-life setting makes one wonder why the filmmakers even included such a poorly blended shot in the final cut at all. Bad acting is a staple of Christian films, and the makers of Heaven is for Real thought the mold was better left unbroken. Unnatural, forced dialogue ungracefully graces the film from the opening titles to the ending credits. The script isn’t exactly heavenly, either: in one scene, Burpo’s on-screen wife breaks two dishes in a fit of anger in front of the whole family and, unlike what one would expect in a Christian film, never apologizes to her husband or children. In another scene, Burpo finds out that his daughter punched a couple of boys at school for making fun of her younger brother Colton. Instead of disciplining her or at least telling her that she should not have done it, Burpo merely laughs and kisses his daughter on the head. One would expect that, especially in a Christian movie, a pastor would teach his children not to hit other children, but apparently the writers are saving that lesson for another movie. The film’s plot itself is rather jumbled, as well. Rather than a clearly defined story where characters strive toward a particular goal, Heaven is for Real better resembles a bunch of randomly picked scenes cut together and labeled a movie.

            The most grievous issue in Heaven is for Real arises late in the film. A woman is grieving by her son’s headstone and asks Burpo if he thinks the fallen Marine went to heaven. This is a perfect opportunity to answer a very important question: if someone I love dies and I do not know his or her spiritual beliefs, can I know whether he or she is in heaven? The answer to this question is, no, you cannot. If you do not know the spiritual beliefs of a deceased loved one, the only way to know whether he or she entered heaven is to go there yourself and find out. Not that the film would tell you that. Rather than offer an answer to the woman’s question, Burpo sidesteps it with a sappy emotional appeal completely devoid of substance. The film’s most theologically important moment is squandered for the sake of political correctness, and all the potential that the scene had is utterly wasted.

            As sappy as Burpo’s on-screen “answer” was, it was nothing compared to the film’s ending. Colton once more peers into heaven, but this time for no apparent reason (cue bad CGI). The quintessential hymn-singing choir fills the audible background, as though the writers had exhausted their supply of originality. And the aforementioned woman gets a fleeting glimpse of her son: a smiling, bouquet-holding, glow-in-the-dark Marine clad in his dress blues (OK, maybe that last part isn’t so bad). The sentimental final scene feels like an ending, but the overarching plot of the film is so muddled that it more resembles a synthesis of all things emotional that the editors felt would look best if placed directly prior to the ending credits.

            Heaven is for Real is emotionally touching movie—if you’ve never read the book. If you have read the book, you will spend the film wondering if the writers read the same book that you did. Plagued by poor writing, poor CGI, poor acting, and an ending cheesier than actual cheese, Heaven is for Real is a good idea gone horribly awry. Many Christians will pay to see this movie, and that is their affair; I, however, am very glad that I did not. If Heaven is for Real could be summarized with one sentence, that sentence would be this: “The book was better.”