Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Remo Girone, Stefania Rocca, Alessandro Sperduti, Mattia Sbragia

- Reviewed by Vickie

Maybe it's because my expectations were too high or maybe it's because I saw this movie after a really great one or maybe it's just because I was tired... but I didn't love Heaven as much as I thought I would.

Following the frenetic success of Run, Lola, Run and the powerful stillness of The Princess and the Warrior, director Tom Tykwer brings audiences this meditative drama that borrows elements from his first two films to make a curious hybrid—a slow-moving, quiet thriller-turned-love story.

Cate Blanchett stars as Phillippa, a British woman living in Italy who blames a corporate magnate (also a well-known drug dealer) for her late husband's death. In a misguided bid for revenge, she plants a bomb in the man's office but winds up missing her target, killing several innocent people instead and promptly landing in police custody as a suspected terrorist.

Her translator is a mild-mannered officer named Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi), who falls for Phillippa almost instantly and concocts a plan to help her escape from the corrupt officials who want her punished for her crimes. Their relationship and subsequent flight from justice makes up the remainder of the film.

The film is laden with moral questions and questionable morality—Filippo is helping Phillippa escape even though her "accident" did actually kill people and she repeatedly claims she wants to own up to what she's done - but the overall tone seems to be one of reflection and dreams. There's a whole heap of ethereal imagery and pensive silence, not to mention lots of pretty scenery and gorgeous cinematography, but it got to the point where I was itching for something to happen... and it never did.

Cate Blanchett delivers yet another mutli-layered performance and actually shaves her head on camera, which was a nice touch, but I found her character somewhat uneven, both in motivation and action. Then again, maybe that was the point—to show how unsure she is about what she's done and what she's about to do? Dunno. According to Tykwer, Giovanni Ribisi (whom I really like as an actor) campaigned hard for his role and traveled to Italy to master the dialect, but I thought his accent sounded very South African and not so much Italian. It was distracting and shifty. His character's puppy-dog allegiance to Phillippa also started to get kind of drippy as the movie went on.

Again, I can't really pinpoint why this film didn't do it for me. It wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't fantastic, either. It was okay, and a fine I-need-to-kill-two-hours time-filler, but just felt like it was missing something.

Or maybe I was.

Who knows.

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