Heaven
Director: Tom Tykwer
Writer: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Remo Girone, Stefania Rocca

Plot:
British Philippa (Cate Blanchett) has been trying and trying to get the Italian police’ attention regarding her husband’s death but was continuously ignored. So she decides to plant a bomb in the office of the man she holds responsible for her woes. Only that things go bad and she kills four other people instead. She is arrested quickly and demands that her interrogations are held in English, not Italian. A young officer (Giovanni Ribisi) takes over that duty and falls in love with Philippa, deciding that he has to help her.

I saw the cast of this film and knew that I had to watch it – which meant that I went in without really knowing much about it. It did take me on a quite surprising voyage through twists and turns that I really didn’t expect. And I enjoyed every second of it.

Heaven is an interesting mix of moods and genres. It starts out as a thriller, quickly becomes a drama, then a heist movie and finally turns into a romantic fantasy. In other films those transitions would have probably been jarring, but in this one the changes in pace and atmosphere that were necessary are perfectly smooth and you barely notice as you’re watching that the film changes various times under your gaze.

Just as that makes it a little difficult to get a handle on the film, you can’t really easily grasp the characters either. Is Philippa a heroine or a vigilante, an idealist or a bitter pragmatist, innocent or guilty? Is Filippo naive and innocent or cunning and manipulative? The answer is probably “a little bit of everything”.

Cate Blanchett and Giovannis Ribisi do their characters full justice. You fall in love with both of them, just as they fall for each other. Again and again I’m disappointed with the projects Ribisi chooses because he could be great, if only he did better stuff – and this film absolutely proves it. Here he is great and easily keeps up with the force of nature that is Cate Blanchett.

The camera work was beautiful, too. But it’s not only the images that will stay with me a long time – it’s this entire film.

Summarizing: An aboslute thing of beauty.