 | Starring: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Remo Girone, Stefania Rocca, Alessandro Sperduti Director: Tom Tykwer Format: Anamorphic Closed-captioned Colour Dolby DVD-Video NTSC Widescreen Released: 17 Jun 2003 Average Rating:  |
In Italy, young schoolteacher Phillipa Paccard (Cate Blanchett) sneaks into drug kingpin Vendice's office & plants a bomb in his trash, little knowing that the trash is about to be collected by the cleaning lady. The resulting explosion kills the lady, a father & his two children. When Phillipa is arrested & told this, she is aghast. She only intended to kill the kingpin, because his distribution of drugs has been killing her pupils, & killed her husband. She has asked the cabinieri to help, but no one has answered. So she took justice into her own hands.
A young Italian cabinieri, Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), serves as a translator for Phillipa, & he is struck by her self-recrimination & sorrow. When her evidence is destroyed by a spy in the police, Philipo creates an elaborate escape plan, then helps her kill Vendice. From there, they escape into Tuscany, where their bond grows deeper. The soul mates live in what seems like a paradise, shaving their heads & wearing identical clothes. But Tuscany is not heaven, & they are still not safe.
Tom Tykwer gave the film its focus (lovers in jeopardy) & unearthly direction, but Krzysztof Kieslowski provided the heart & soul of it. In that sense, it is wholly his movie. Themes of guilt & redemption, love & salvation, punishment & forgiveness run deep in "Heaven." Symbolism clings to it like ivy (the white shirts, the bright lights), & there are definite religious tones to it -- Phillipa's confession to Filipo in a church, the wistful watching of a wedding, & the ascension into the skies -- not the triumph of law, but the triumph of love & forgiveness.
The handling of Phillipa & Filippo is exquisite, such as the scenes where they shave their heads & wear identical clothes, run & walk in unison. He was born on the day of her first communion, & their names are male & female versions of each other's, yin & yang. Not exactly subtle, but convincing. The direction is otherworldly, even in scenes like Phillipa shooting Vendice. In the latter half of the film, this dreaminess pervades everything -- the trees, sky, ruined stone churches & the tiny running figures.
The main problems, it seems, would be the ocasional clash between Tykwer & the late Kieslowski's style. Some parts are more Tykwer, some are more Kieslowski, so it seems sometimes that the focus is less on the storyline & more on the lovers (which is more Tykwer). Additionallly, when the lovers arrive in Tuscany the tone changes to a less hard-edged, more romantic one. Some viewers may find this disconcerting, but I found it a natural progression as the two grew closer & sought some kind of haven, even if Phillipa doesn't want to go unpunished.
Cate Blanchett is in amazing form here, expressing grief, love, pride, & anger with only a slight change of expression. Giovanni Ribisi is almost as good; he's a little stiff in the beginning, but loosens up & becomes fully believable as a very young man who is very deeply in love. Remo Girone appears in only a few scenes as Filipo's dad, but is heartbreakingly good.
With the best of Tykwer & Kieslowski carefully woven together, "Heaven" is a quietly passionate, deeply romantic movie. An amazing, heartbreaking movie, & not one to be missed.
Cate Blanchett is Philippa, a British-born English teacher in Turin, Italy, who's lost her husband & at least one student to the ravages of illegal drugs. The narcotics' source, a powerful business executive, is known to the tutor. Not having gotten any help from the police after repeated entreaties, Philippa plants a bomb in the waste can of the dealer's high rise office, & then callls the authorities to take responsibility for the imminent assassination. Unfortunately, the trash is emptied by a cleaning lady before it detonates, & she & three other innocents are ultimately killed in the blast. Philippa is arrested as a terrorist & interrogated, during which time the young police translator, a raw recruit named Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), fallls in love with her & engineers her escape. Philippa declares she has no wish to avoid responsibility for her deadly mistake, but needs the opportunity to balance the scales by finishing the rough justice she intended.
It's a good thing that the director had in mind something more profound than the face-value of the storyline because the latter is occasionallly wildly improbable or leaves questions unanswered. If Philippa was the only occupant of her cell, why did the police bug it? How could Filippo, basicallly just a kid, have the informed smarts to pull off a sophisticated jail break? (The fact that his Dad used to be the local head of the carabinieri isn't enough.) Where did Philippa learn how to construct a bomb? (Her explanation that it was just left in her apartment doesn't cut it, especiallly since the audience sees her making it.) At the finale, how did the storm troopers & the police helicopter know where to go?
I consider Cate Blanchett to be one of the finest actresses in the business. She doesn't just act a role, she becomes the character. At one point in HEAVEN, her tresses are shorn down to stubble on-screen. How many actors today would have such dedication to a role to do that?
The film is stylishly photographed. The perspective is often above the action, as when the camera is shooting straight down as it passes high across Turin's streetscape, as if the director wants to make the point that the film's message is above the mundane cares of the human ants below. And what is that message? Without sounding to corny, perhaps it's that the sublime event of a lifetime must be grasped at any cost, even if it leads to morallly ambiguous actions. The similarity of the names "Philippa" & "Filippo" isn't accidental.
The film's conclusion is perhaps too symbolic. It's unsatisfying in that it skirts the issue of ownership of one's actions, something which Philippa made clear early on she was willing to assume. There's no Bonnie & Clyde denouement here. However, the final screen shot does tie in with the question posed at the end of the opening sequence. HEAVEN.
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