Review of Heaven

When this film is good it is very, very good but when it is bad it is horrid. Excellent cinematography, some excellent direction (the opening is put together like a jigsaw puzzle and the plot and counterplot during the interrogation of the main character was intricate and amusing), some excellent acting. Unfortunately the motivation of the main character is ridiculous beyond belief. When the Turin Police don't return her calls about a drug dealer she considers responsible for several deaths she decides to do the only possible thing: kill him with a BOMB set off in an office building DURING WORKING HOURS. If the character had gone totally beserk or was simply a homicidal moron or even a terrorist ... but no, this is a loving teacher of young children who faints in horror when she finds out four innocent people got killed. Cate Blanchett should get an Oscar for keeping a straight face. This crud passes for moral complexity but actually it is just a jumble of contrasting stereotypes stuffed into a single character. If you want to see a movie about how good people end up as vigilantes see In the Bedroom.

After messing around with "moral complexity" the movie opts for being a love story and the luscious cinematography serves it well. There are many striking, haunting images. Ribisi is convincing as a strange, sweet young man who falls off a cliff when he falls in love. Blanchett shows no feeling at all. Maybe she is still trying to keep a straight face - the dialogue is awful. Then the cops arrive with assault rifles. But in shoddy movies men with guns can't hit the side of a barn so the lovers are able to steal the police chopper.

Did Tykwer mess up the script or was it just unfinished?