The Five People You Meet In Heaven (2004)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Due to the success of Mitch Albom's books. It was a dream that they would turn into movies.Being that Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven are two of my favorite books, I was rather excited that they turned into movies. Unfortunately, I have not seen Tuesdays With Morrie (1999).Being that The Five People You Meet in Heaven is one of my favorite books, I was a little disappointed, but I still really liked the movie.The movie is a TV Movie, so it doesn't have the great budget and quality it deserves. But the cinematography is great.Five People is about how each person we meet, though appearing insignificant, are part of the vast web of interconnection that affects our life. Jon Voight plays Eddie, an 83-year old mechanic who has worked at the Ruby Pier Amusement Park all his life except for a stint in the army during World War II. The first thing we learn about Eddie is that he is dead, killed in a roller coaster accident while trying to save a little girl.The next thing we find out is that, in heaven, Eddie will meet and talk with five people who were the most influential in his life, people Eddie would probably not think of first, but whose influence becomes slowly and painstakingly revealed. As he re-experiences traumatic events from the past, it soon becomes clear that what they share with him allows him to complete and illuminate the past. Eddie meets "The Blue Man" (Jeff Daniels), part of the sideshow at the park, his Army captain (Michael Imperioli), his wife Marguerite (Dagmara Dominczyk) who died after only a few years of marriage, the wife of the original owner of the Ruby Pier (Ellen Burstyn), and a little Filipino girl named Tala (Nicaela and Shelbie Weigel).The Five People You Meet in Heaven is well worth the watch.

A very refreshing film (as I did find the book) that confirms to us uncertain humans that maybe our lives do mean more than we know.Remember that (then) ugly girl you saved from the bullies after school? How about the complete stranger you changed a tire for on the side of that desolate highway 30 years ago? This movie just might leave you wondering late into the night how it all might add up in the next world.My only problem with the film was the over-sweet and dominating presence of Ellen Burstyn's character. Her building and ubiquitous performance led me to believe she might appear in my living room along with Mary Poppins at the end of the show. Aside from that, Jon Voight delivered his utmost, and I was not disappointed.

If you've read Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, then you know the author's got a way with wrenching your emotions. I've never teared up as much as when I'd read that book; the story of a student and his old teacher who was dying of a horribly debilitating disease. But it also had a fairly high schmaltz factor. THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN also has that sappiness running through it, but with a serious religious bent to boot (not surprising considering the title).The story is that of Eddie (Jon Voight, NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS) and his life as a repairman at an entertainment park. Many things have happened at this unique place. It's where Eddie's father worked day in and day out all of his life. It's where Eddie fell in love with his future wife Marguerite (Dagmar Dominczyk, 24 TV Series). It's the place where Eddie would leave in order to fight and become injured in WW II. And it's where Eddie would eventually die while trying to save the life of a child.The story takes place immediately after Eddie's death, and we get to see five flashbacks via five people that Eddie thought he never knew. The first is Blue Man (Jeff Daniels, THE LOOKOUT) who was a sideshow freak at the carnival. Little did Eddie know he'd touched Blue Man in a very special way, but also may have been partially responsible for his death.The second is Captain (Michael Imperioli, SHARK TALE) who was his commanding officer during WW II. Both having been captured and tortured during the war, they also broke themselves free and torched their prison before departing. It was also during this time that Eddie was wounded in the knee, making him unable to walk normally for the rest of his life. But who shot him? And were there any people in those prison huts they burned down? The third person is Eddie's own Marguerite. Having not seen his wife since her death many years before, Eddie comes to understand just how much he loved her ...but also how much he'd held back due to his own past during the war.The fourth is someone he'd never met in life but had worked for during most of his time on Earth, Ruby (Ellen Burstyn, THE FOUNTAIN), for whom the park was named where Eddie worked. The destruction and rebuilding of Ruby's Pier (the name of the entertainment park) is an analogy for the same thing Eddie must do in order to salvage himself from the destructive behavior toward his abusive father.The fifth and final person is someone, again, Eddie had never met but who's life he touched in a very significant way. Telling you who and how this happened would be a huge spoiler, so I'll just say that, in true scripture fashion, Eddie is able to "wash away" his sins and become someone worthy of heavenly entry.The biggest challenge for some viewers will be trying to separate the acting/scenes with the religious themes being rammed down their throats. But if you're able to separate them, you might enjoy it on some levels. Although morally it's a tale of one man's eventual redemption in the afterlife, it also has some pretty good acting and interesting sets for a made-for-TV Hallmark presentation.A message to those who are "true believers": please try not to thump your bibles too loudly.

One of the best movies I have ever seen, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" could be the 21st century version of "It's a Wonderful Life". It is amazing how Mitch Albom manages to weave together the stories of other lives who touch the life of the main character. Eddie is certainly given a great gift: a chance to see not only how his life was affected by others' lives and how his life in turn affected the lives of those he knew, but also the opportunity to see how all lives are somehow interconnected. They range from those with whom he shared many years to those he met briefly, only in passing. There is a lesson to be learned in each one, though it is generally the same: how did you grow? How were you helped to grow? Whom did you help to grow? What stunts growth? Surely, as Eddie discovers, it is not death which is the means to enter into the deeper discovery of who one is. It was delightful to watch Eddie learn that the capacity to love and forgive is what gives the maximum growth in any human soul.