Heaven
(2002)
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Written by late Polish director Krysztof Kieslowski and Krysztof Piesiewicz (the team that made the trilogy BLUE, WHITE, and RED) and directed by German master Tom Tykwer (RUN LOLA RUN), HEAVEN is the first part of a trilogy. Cate Blanchett is Philippa, a strong-willed English woman who teaches in Turin, Italy. At school she witnesses young students torn apart by drug addictions, poverty, and family struggles. Her husband, similarly, died of a drug overdose. She takes the law into her own hands when she decides to go after a major drug czar. But when her plan goes terribly wrong, and she's taken into custody and accused of being an international terrorist, she finds herself in a hell she never imagined. Her only hope is Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), a young cop and translator who wants to help her. |
Co-scripted by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski as part of a projected “Heaven, Hell and Purgatory” trilogy, German director Tom Tykwer's English-language debut — after the international success of Run Lola Run — falls between mainstream thriller and art house character study, without ever fully exploring either his or Kieslowski's preferred themes. Moreover, there's little sense of connection between Cate Blanchett's accidental terrorist and Giovanni Ribisi's Italian cop, who helps her escape when a plan to blow up a drug-dealing tycoon backfires. Blanchett is excellent as the widowed English teacher, stripped of reason by her need for revenge. But without Kieslowski's customary psycho-spirituality, the conclusion is particularly unpersuasive and exposes Tykwer's discomfort with cerebral rather than visceral material.