Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Heaven Blu-ray Movie Review

Mysteries of Redemption

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 22, 2013

German director Tom Tykwer made Heaven after the international success of 1998's Lola Rennt (Run, Lola, Run) and its challenging (some would say infuriating) follow-up, The Princess and the Warrior (2000). In Heaven, Tykwer departed from his usual practice of writing his own screenplay and took on the challenge of directing a film written by someone else—and not just anyone. The script for Heaven came from the celebrated Polish writing team of Krzysztof Piesiewicz and the late director Krzysztof Kieslowski, creator of the Three Colors Trilogy. At his death in 1996, Kieslowski left scripts for a new trilogy to be called "Heaven, Hell and Purgatory". After Tykwer directed Heaven, the remaining two chapters were made by other directors.

If one had only seen Lola, with its flashy style and rapid-fire editing, Tykwer might seem an odd match with Kieslowski. But Lola's style is atypical for Tykwer, and it was dictated by that film's manic story set in a milieu of small-time criminals to examine Tykwer's abiding interest in chance, fate and the impact of random encounters. These same elements are fully on display in the stylistically distinct The Princess and the Warrior, and they can even be spotted in Tykwer's approach to a mainstream thriller like The International . His preoccupations made Tykwer the ideal creative partner for the Wachowskis on the ambitious Cloud Atlas, as well as the perfect director (in the absence of Kieslowski) for Heaven, which appears on its surface to be a conventional tale of drug dealing, police corruption and revenge, but quickly burrows beneath that surface to tell a different story, one that's harder to describe but, in Tykwer's hands, casts a dreamlike spell.

It is impossible to discuss Heaven without at least some revelation of the plot, but in today's internet culture, the spoiler police are always on the alert, even with films that have been in circulation for years. (No doubt someone out there would consider it too much to reveal that Cinderella leaves a glass slipper on the palace stairs.) Although many elements of Heaven's literal plot are worth safeguarding, in my view they are all eventually irrelevant, because the real story of the film is a mystery that can be experienced and pondered on many subsequent viewings. However, for those who are unusually spoiler-allergic, I suggest skipping directly to the technical sections.

One item can be disclosed up front: Echo Bridge has provided a watchable but generally poor Blu-ray of Heaven. Unfortunately, it appears to be the only option available for the foreseeable future.

Heaven is set primarily in Turin, Italy, with dialogue in both English and subtitled Italian. The two main characters are Philippa Paccard (Cate Blanchett), who is English by birth, and Filippo Fabrizi (Giovanni Ribisi), a young Italian who has just started a career with the police or "Carabinieri", following in the footsteps of his father (Remo Girone). The similarity of their first names is not accidental.

In the opening scene, Filippo is training to be a helicopter pilot in a flight simulator, but flies too high, drawing a rebuke from his instructor: "In a real helicopter you can't just keep flying higher."

Filippo soon has other concerns. He is assigned to transcribe the interrogation sessions of Philippa, who has been arrested as a terrorist. When she insists on being interrogated in English, he also serves as translator. The charges against Philippa stem from a bomb she placed in the office of one Vendice (Stefano Santospago), the president of a major electronics company, in an elaborately choreographed sequence worthy of anything crafted by Hitchcock or DePalma. But unforeseen events caused Vendice to survive unharmed, while others casualties were sustained.

Philippa claims that Vendice's company is a front for drug dealing, that his activities caused the death of her husband and cost the lives of students at the school where she teaches English, and that she repeatedly complained to the Carabinieri in writing and phone calls for a year before deciding to take the law into her own hands. Indications of police corruption hang in the air as all the evidence of her complaints has magically disappeared. At one point, Philippa collapses on the floor of the interrogation room, overcome with fatigue and emotion, and Filippo rushes to fetch a doctor and assist in rendering aid—and that's when something passes between the prisoner and the young cop. Call it love, call it destiny, or call it the hand of God intervening, but both lives are forever changed.

The second act of Heaven follows Filippo's efforts to assist Philippa's escape from custody, while the third act charts her flight across Italy (after several hitches), pursued by the entire force of the Carabinieri. Tykwer doesn't stint on portraying the logistical details of these events, but they become increasingly surreal and remote, because something else has taken center stage. The nature of that "something" is what Heaven asks the viewer to consider. At one point, someone asks Philippa whether she loves Filippo. She reflects on her answer at length, and by the time she gives it, you realize that it doesn't matter. However one chooses to label their entanglement, it is so complete and transformative that familiar constructs no longer apply.

Heaven is a difficult film, because its heroine commits heinous acts, and although she believes her cause to be just, she harms innocent people in the process. Even if Vendice is guilty, how can Philippa's actions be justified? It is arguably unfair to cast such a role with an actress as appealing as Cate Blanchett, since audience members will naturally be inclined to forgive a character played by a luminous movie star, but to her credit Blanchett does not make Philippa a nice or easy person. She never seeks sympathy or forgiveness, just as she never asks for Filippo's help. Indeed, she tries for as long as possible to hold this strange young man at a distance, but eventually even Philippa must accept that she is caught up in (for lack of a better word) a spiritual event much larger than herself that is developing in ways she can't possibly fathom. In the end, "heaven" may simply be surrendering to the unknown.

Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Echo Bridge's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Heaven's imagery (cinematography by Tykwer's usual collaborator, Frank Griebe) leaves much to be desired. Black levels are acceptable, colors are properly saturated, and detail is superior to what we would see on a DVD—which is hardly an acceptable standard for Blu-ray. Fine detail is somewhat smudged, which appears to be a function of grain reduction: not so-called "DNR", but a roll-off of the high-frequency information that contains image detail. This would be consistent with the unnecessarily low bitrate of 19.65 Mbps and a disc image of 16.3 Gb. Heaven has not been overcompressed so much as stripped down more than necessary for the sake of an image that resembles video instead of film.

A light amount of artificial sharpening has been applied as well, consistent with the "video not film" philosophy. It's not enough to cause obvious ghosting, but it adds to the obvious impression that someone wanted this disc to look like that latest thing in HD video. They failed, and they lost the film-like look in the process.

Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In a distressing return to its earlier practices, Echo Bridge has released Heaven on Blu-ray with a lossless stereo soundtrack, formatted as DTS-HD MA 2.0, even though the film was released theatrically with a 5.1 mix. The initial DVD release in 2003 included the original 5.1 track. As 2.0 tracks go, it's a perfectly serviceable affair, with clear dialogue and good fidelity for the spare musical score consisting of selections composed by Tykwer, Arvo Pärt and several others. Heaven's soundtrack is deliberately simple, and it has been long enough since I last saw the film that I cannot now recall how much more of a sense of immersion the 5.1 track provides. Still, we shouldn't have to guess. The original audio track should have been provided.

Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

When Miramax first released Heaven on DVD under Disney's Buena Vista label in 2003, it came with major extras: a commentary from director Tykwer, deleted scenes with further optional commentary by Tykwer, something called a "Space Cam Fly-By" and a featurette entitled "The Story of Heaven". That DVD is now out of print.

The Blu-ray from Echo Bridge includes only the featurette (480i; 1.33:1; 6:17). It's fine for what it is, with contributions from Tykwer, Blanchett and Ribisi, as well as executive producer Sydney Pollack and producers Anthony Minghella and William Horberg. But when a film has such a distinguished heritage, and the extras already exist, they should not be allowed to disappear into obscurity. If you have the Disney DVD, hold onto it. If you can find a copy, grab it.

Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Heaven is a remarkable film, for its performances and themes, as part of Tykwer's filmography and, indirectly, as part of Kieslowski's. It is a shame that this Blu-ray presentation from Echo Bridge leaves so much to be desired. Unfortunately, this is probably the best we're likely to get for a long time. At least the price is low. I recommend the film, but the Blu-ray is up to you.