Heaven (2002) Cate Blanchett Giovanni Ribisi

1 hr 33 min

video resolution 704x384, 25 FPS

audio 448 kbs, 6 channels

subtitles provided for Italian segments

Kindly continue to seed.

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# Actors: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Remo Girone, Stefania Rocca, Alessandro Sperduti

# Directors: Tom Tykwer (of "Run Lola Run")

# Language: English, Italian

# Studio: Walt Disney Video



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This review is from: Heaven (DVD)

The brilliant director of "Run Lola Run" and "The Princess and the Warrior", Tom Tykwer, has directed another visually stunning, thought provoking and mystical film exploring the relationship of a man and a woman from different backgrounds who find each other and realize that a strong and potent connection exists between the two of them. As in "The Princess and the Warrior," Tykwer combines the real and the surreal to dazzling effect.



The main characters, whose names are "Phillipa" and "Fillipo" represent opposite or opposing forces who finally become merged into one. "Phillipa" the female character, circumvents and subverts society's ineffectual system of laws by taking the law into her own hands, and plans to kill a drug dealer who is in cahoots with the the police. "Fillipo", the male character, is in direct contradistinction to Phillipa in that he is a member of the police system that Phillipa feels has failed her, her husband, and her students (she is a teacher). After she is captured, the two find a powerful spiritual connection that transforms and bonds them forever. The roles that were established for the characters blur as Fillipo breaks the laws his job symbolizes and helps Phillipa escape; and Phillipa, racked with guilt over the the inncoent deaths at her hands, is ready to submit to the very same laws that failed her and set all the events in motion. The film, as it progresses, reconciles these opposing forces, and the characters' identities and ideals literally (they begin to look alike) and symbollically (they begin to both believe that there is no real justice in the world) merge into one.



The film, in addition, grows more surreal as it progresses and the bond between the two is cemented both physically and spiritually. Some critics have expressed that the ending is disappointing in the way it leaves the moral aspects of the film unresolved (Phillipa escapes punishment for her crimes). I think they have missed the point in that the main focus of the film, as in most of Tykwer's films, is on the mystical connection of the characters. The last scene, a breathtaking piece of cinema, establishes this connection in a surreal way. Phillipa herself admits that she deserves punishment for her crimes, but in a world that makes no sense, where justice and law rarely live up to their ideals, their last escape makes perfect sense.