A Little Bit of Heaven

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Good movie!

source: A Little Bit of Heaven

I saw this movie just now on a whim after a really horrible day in life. And it is beautiful, really beautiful! The person that Kate displays is a fantastical being and exactly the kind of person I strive to be. She reminded me of the fact that all the light, beauty and humor in life comes from within. It's all up to you and how you see the world. And being a being of light, humor and happiness is everything anyone should strive for in life... This movie reminds me of that, life is good, life is short and life really is worth living! Every stinking horrible gray day of it, because the more crap you live thru, the stronger you get and every time you come out smiling you will shine a little brighter, to the very end!

I watched this because Kate Hudson's characters are always entertaining, but the first 30 to 40 minutes of this are pretty horrible. It flits between drinking with her friends, a couple of scenes at her job, and the rest of the time tries to force a relationship between 2 people with absolutely no chemistry. If you watch the first couple minutes you can get an idea of who everyone is, and then just skip through the next half hour. It's not a great movie after that and definitely not worth sitting through the first half hour, but it's decent if you can ignore the wasted time. Maybe if there was some kind of chemistry between the two actors it'd be a decent half hour, but those were just painfully forced scenes.

The script was all over the place. There were parts I liked, but they seemed to come from several different movies, and didn't fit into this one. Peter Dinklage's gigolo and Whoopi Goldberg's turn as "God" belong in a flighty movie, not in a film that's trying to be a serious look at how people cope with cancer. The patient/doctor dynamic, was insultingly trivialised, too. I can accept that two people who fall in love might break the rules, but I would've thought there would've been a whole lot more soul searching going on. He turns her down initially, but then soon relents and says yes, with no real plausible explanation for the change of heart. Seems to me you might be a lot more cautious if agreeing to a date meant your career was on the line. His colleagues try to warn him off, but mostly the movie treats the relationship like it's a happy, frothy joke, when in reality it represents a serious ethical breach that deserves to be treated like a big deal, if it goes ahead. The whole movie was like this, veering wildly between lighthearted and dramatic, without the characters being able to make the shifts feel convincing. At one point another character says to Marley something like: "Why do you always have to treat everything like a joke?!" I feel the same way about Kate Hudson. "Raising Helen" was another movie with an ostensibly serious subject, but somehow it ended up as an inconsequential, disposable timewaster - just like this. Like mother like daughter, I guess; always trying to make light of things, instead of tackling the serious stuff.

What made this film a winner, is the appearance of Peter Dinklage, who recently picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Game of Thrones, and whose character provided the name of this film, which of course puns on his physical size. Playing a social escort who got his services engaged for Kate Hudson's Marley Corbett, his support role was indeed one of the highlights of the film, coming in from the blue and serving up some great lines and moments, making a much welcomed lift for the story. Which the trailer would have told you everything you needed to know from start to end, with Marley being a successful career woman who is climbing the corporate ladder with a zilch love life, but is soon cut down unfairly to size by Fate who had dealt her the disease hand. With cancer (colon, not very often mentioned on screen) treatment she meets her doctor Julian Goldstein (Gael Garcia Bernal) from Mexico, and tossing doctor-patient relationships out of the window, they spend an incredible amount of lovely time together even if both knows about their short lived romance should she choose to reject treatment, or if the disease would get the better of her. Whoopi Goldberg plays God, who grants her three wishes, two of which were used rather carelessly, though of no fault of the bubbly one given initial skepticism. This film was ballsy in a number of ways, chief of which is in its treatment of a story about death without shirking from the nasty details of anticipation, and the inevitable execution. Many Hollywood films tend to cop out at the very last minute, but this one tackled it with a lot of dignity, and proved that one doesn't have to always compromise to do what gets reflected in real life. That, and Kate Hudson showing a lot of nerve in many scenes almost sans makeup, looking quite ghastly and pale as the story called for it. Written by Gren Wells, it's more about how one should approach life when given a death sentence, with the romance angle taking a back seat despite marketeers' efforts to skew this into a romantic comedy. Which is not surprising since it's a film helmed by Nicole Kassell, whose previous film was the dark and brooding The Woodsman starring Kevin Bacon. A Little Bit of Heaven does steer toward a darker feel, although with some light at the end of the tunnel through overcoming challenges in difficult family relationships, and the maintaining of both established ones with good friends, and new romantic ones formed. Kate Hudson may be typecast for roles that may involve the devil may care attitude, and this one provides that opportunity for her to show off a little bit of dramatic acting chops. Gael Garcia Bernal though was relatively bland given his Doctor role, although does get some of the best lines in flubbing many jokes when the script called for it. Both leads share a nice chemistry although most of their romancing were reduced to a montage, leaving room for more of Kate Hudson and Kathy Bates to share some mother-daughter time, and that between Hudson and Lucy Punch playing her best friend and one of many close confidantes. And in some ways this film made me think a little bit more about mortality, if one were to be struck by a serious illness which was detected late and the treatment really being a bitch, would you want to go ahead with trying to get cured, or to live whatever is left to the fullest? My choice will likely be the latter, although why not make the best of life with each day instead?

So anything goes in Hollywood movies to make them pretty and saleable! Granted! But how about some correct jargons and dialogue like a medical instead of "your cancer is all over your colon" ... and how about, can a patient on chemo go to a public place like a night club full of smoke? oh wait she is accompanied by her doctor who just a while ago asked her for a "drink"... a drink? really? in the middle of treatment? I donno what to say about this movie... I wish it promoted a little bit of awareness and hope for the cancer patients instead of making it look like oh so rosy and then have an ending to make it romeo-julietish! Gael Garcia is soo good in Spanish films, I don't know why he acts so weird in English movies. Casting was mismatched. There was no chemistry. Why did they cast Gael Garcia? Kate Hudson did not look like a terminal colon cancer patient. Losing so much blood (which is unavoidable in colon cancer sorry Hollywood) will make her anemic and very sickly...not so much color and energized eyes ... And why are we rooting for her? The character did not come up in anyway that likable or extraordinary, even with her constant grin. Oh and those jokes thruout the movie... !!!!! speechless

Okay, I have read the other reviews of this movie, and I must say, I think the women are much more on base than the men. I believe the other men who have reviewed this, have some issues with what the world calls a chick flick... A Little Bit of Heaven, in my opinion as man, was actually the perfect blend of humor and drama, Kate Hudson's finest work that I have seen to date. Its a story of an individuals ups and downs of coping with death at a very young age. I felt this movie showed both the attempts to stay positive an upbeat as well as what I am sure happens, the anger to the people around you. For the reviews who gave this anything less than 6 minimum, but then rate "The Other Guys" a perfect 10, shows you they are just shallow. I am a father of 4 daughters, and can't imagine what it would of be like to go through something like this. I would recommend this movie to all, minus the men, who think they are too cool or tough to show a little emotion, as this movie in my opinion will bring tears to anyone...

I saw this week "Something Borrowed", "Bridesmaids" and "A Little Bit of Heaven", and the rate seems so opposite to what I think. Bridesmaids 7.3 and "A Little Bit of Heaven" 5.9, I just don't understand how. This movie makes you laugh and makes you cry, I had seen some really really bad comedies that makes you cry! but this one really touches your feelings. This is my first review, the only reason I wrote this is because I think people should know it. In my humble opinion, this one was so much better . Kate Hudson's acting goes beyond to what we have seen before, I think she is doing it better and better with the pass of the time. Well that's it! Just to let you know what I think.. Thanks for reading it.