Heaven can wait, Greg. Let’s get on with the review.

Colton has a ruptured appendix and has emergency surgery performed on him. He survives, but it was a close call. Maybe a bit too close. In the weeks and months that follow the surgery, Colton begins revealing memories of visiting heaven while he was unconscious. At first, Todd has trouble coming to grips with these recollections, and then when word gets out the entire congregation becomes stirred up.

Greg, I enjoyed the concept of this movie, as I’m fascinated by near-death occurrences and all the common experiences that people worldwide have shared when they’ve come close to dying or have died and come back. I read the book and found it to be a powerful account of a young boy’s claim that he visited heaven. I say ‘powerful’ because if you believe the father’s account, there are three compelling pieces of evidence supporting the boy’s story: (1) the boy’s knowledge of his unborn sister, (2) the boy’s knowledge of the grandfather he never met, and (3) the boy’s confirmation of the image of Jesus as portrayed by a Lithuanian girl who also had a near-death experience.

But the movie-makers decided that this story alone wasn’t powerful enough to carry the movie.  So they decided to make the father the hero and to manufacture a good deal of anguish in the poor man. He’s depicted as a hothead who kicks furniture and who struggles with the idea that his son has met Jesus. None of this happens in the book, and for good reason – it’s a silly notion for the father, a Christian pastor, to disbelieve his son’s story that heaven exists. The movie also fabricates a terrible crisis in the church over the veracity and meaning of the boy’s story. These embellishments rang false for me.

There really are no villains in this story, but there are oppositional forces that our hero, Todd, encounters. There is a woman on the church board who wants to replace Todd. There is a psychotherapist who preaches a scientific explanation to Todd when he instead needs spiritual guidance. There are also his own inner demons and difficult circumstances, including dire family finances and numerous personal health setbacks.

Again, many of the struggles that Todd faces do not appear in the book, which wisely centers on the sheer power of Colton’s story rather than on reactions to the story. So we have a movie that tells a powerful story of a visit to heaven but strangely focuses on everyone getting wigged out by the story.

Heaven is For Real is an unconventional movie that puts all its emotional eggs in a single spiritual basket, namely, the “afterlife” experience of a young boy that seems to defy belief. The movie makes the unfortunate decision to showcase the father’s turbulent journey rather than the child’s, and the result is a film that doesn’t ring true to me. There are good performances by the entire cast, and as you note, Greg, Connor Corum is adorable as the young Colton. But I cannot give this movie more than 2 Reels out of 5.

Greg Kinnear does a fine job in his role as Todd, but the hero journey lacks both heft and believability. I found Todd to be one of the least spiritual people I’ve seen in the movies, and yet he is a Christian pastor. Toward the end, he and his wife finally see the light, but why it takes 90 minutes to see such a bright light is beyond me. I can only give Todd 2 Heroes out of 5.

While I wouldn’t call any of the characters villains per se, there were oppositional forces that force Todd to squirm, to suffer, and to change. One could argue that this movie is a nice story of a family that prevails over serious financial, health, and spiritual setbacks. Still, some of these obstacles, such as the congregation that freaks out, seem forced and fabricated. For that reason, I can only give this film 2 Villains out of 5.

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