Movie Review: Heaven is for Real

This past Easter Sunday, my mother and I decided to continue our family tradition of going to the cinema. This year we decided to see the film, Heaven is for Real, a film we decided was perfect for Easter.

Heaven is for Real is an adaptation on the New York Times best selling book by the same name. The film takes place in a small town in Nebraska where the Burpo family resides. Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) is a pastor in the small town to a small congregation, and his wife Sonja (Kelly Reilly) is a stay at home mom to two small children.

The family is shown to go through multiple financial and medical issues. The main medical issue that comes to light is that of Colton (Connor Corum), their four year old son, whose appendix ruptures and comes very close to dying. This instance shows Todd’s struggle with his faith and the congregation coming together to pray for Colton’s recovery. Colton makes it though surgery and quickly goes back to being a four year old boy, but with one difference, he claims to have been to heaven and met family members that died before he was born. This news quickly spreads through the town and is written about in the newspaper. Struggles begin to arise between the family and their own understanding of what happened to Colton as well as their struggle with the congregation and their understanding of the event.

Heaven is for Real did not fail to bring tears to my eyes, but also left me with some confusion.

Going to see a film that the main premise was a little boy’s visit to heaven, was no doubt going to make me tear up. The little boy not only sat in Jesus’s lap, but met his sister that was never born, and his father’s grandfather. Both instances when he told his parents, was not only heartbreaking, but warmed my spirit. The reactions both Kinnear and Reilly had were not only believable, but made you truly feel for the parents, who both suffered great loss.

Another scene that touched my heart, was that of Nancy (Margo Martindale) the church’s pianist and church council member. Through out the second half of the film, Nancy was shown as one of the main antagonists. At every turn she fights the  Colton’s story, and fights to keep it from turning the church into a circus. She even goes as far as to try and fire Todd and get the family out of the church. However, she is shown to really be upset over the death of her son, who died in combat, a few years. She sits down with Todd, near her son’s grave, and tells him that she is not angry at the church or the Burpos, but at God, for taking her son away from her. Martindale did an amazing job showing the pain of a mother who outlived her son and had the audience not resent her, but feel for her.

Something that made me feel puzzled leaving the theater was, why was the congregation so against the idea that Colton went to heaven? The congregation, as well as Todd’s wife, did not believe in the story of Colton’s journey. For the character of Nancy, I could understand, but why not any of the others. Was it because they were afraid heaven was a real place and that meant hell was real as well, or was it because Colton was four and was not a reliable source. Either way, the answer was never given of why they did not believe. However, I cannot seem to figure out why a group of church goers, would not, or could not, believe in heaven.

Another aspect that left me confused was Colton’s journey to heaven. The film portrayed Colton walking into heaven, that was represented as the church, and being sung to by the angels and meeting Jesus. Now, the reason this scene confused me was because it did not seem to need to be in the film. I understand the director and writers wanted to give a visual representation of heaven to the audience, but the scene turned out awkward. Having a four year old walking into heaven looked obscure, and overall out of place. The scene still had a voice over by Colton as he described his surroundings, so why put the scene in. In all honesty, this scene would have been a lot better off letting the audience imagine heaven and Colton’s experience themselves, without a scene that was awkward to watch.

Overall, I give Heaven is for Real a ‘B.”  The film is worth watching, and brings a happier side of life to the big screen, something that is hard to get in films now a days. So if you choose to go to the theater this weekend, give Heaven is for Real some serious thought.