Cold Heaven (1992)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Best movie of this year hands down!

best movie i've ever seen.

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.

Marie Davenport (Theresa Russell) is married with Dr. Alex Davenport (Mark Harmon) and is having a love affair with Dr. Daniel Corvin (James Russo). Marie plans to leave Alex and move in together with Daniel that has just left his wife Anna Corvin (Julie Carmen). Marie believes that the best moment to tell her decision to her husband is in Acapulco, Mexico, where he will go to a medical convention. While sailing with Marie, Alex swims and is hit on the head by a motor boat. He goes to the hospital but dies; however before the autopsy, his body disappears from the morgue. Marie returns to Carmel and out of the blue, she meets Alex alive in her hotel room. Marie, who was raised Catholic but is atheist, recalls a vision that she had one year ago when Virgin Mary pointed out to her the location where a sanctuary should be built and seeks out Monsignor Cassidy (Richard Bradford). Is Alex's resurrection a test of her faith? "Cold Heaven" is a weird film indicated for religious people, more specifically to Catholics. The story about an adulterous woman raised Catholic but that lost her faith in God when her mother passed away is strange and has a moralist conclusion. The plot keeps the mystery until the moment that Marie discloses her vision to the priest. At least, the sexy Theresa Russell is worthwhile watching by her fans. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Desejo Selvagem" ("Wild Desire")

All the other reviews panning this flick are fair warning. It is so preposterous you won't believe you are wasting your time until the last 7 minutes. When the Mrs. walks down the hill with the young priest, the whole movie evaporates into a finalé not unlike a B-flat minor version of the Sound of Music. The wrap up is pap. Imagine watching Jaws but at the end, Jesus floats down and lifts everybody out of the boat and whisks them to safety, with the little town becoming the next Shrine to the Ascension. The end was so totally out of character with the story that has been told to that point. And it was as embarrassing to watch as Tammy Faye Baker.

Well, well....Roeg touched a bit of a nerve there, didn't he? He was a genius while he was cataloguing his various characters' descents into psychosis for a couple of decades, but as soon as he has the bad taste to suggest that redemption (or even some good advice) might be found in the bad old Catholic church, the hipper-than-thou alternative movie crowd gets extra vicious. Worse still, Theresa Russell's character - faced with experiences that nothing in her avowedly rationalist outlook has an explanation for, is unwillingly forced to deal with those experiences on another level - that of the spiritual. You know, the realm of the ignorant and superstitious, the sort of thing that the art-house cinephiles are supposed to be above. Oh, the horror... So she finds her marriage - the idea that it might be a uniquely important commitment - affirmed by what seems uncomfortably like divine intervention. People who find this idea prima facie offensive could maybe ask themselves why they instinctively jump into attack mode at being challenged to take seriously the idea of a spiritual dimension to their lives. But they probably won't. Sure, this film has some problems, notably Talia Shire's delirious hamwork as the overwrought nun, 1950s-style attire and all. And the dialogue between Marie Davenport and the young priest in their last scene is straight out of the Spellbound School of Glib Interpretations (though Hitchcock's movie escaped similar charges due to the source of wisdom having impeccably secular credentials as a Freudian psychoanalyst). But, sadly, Nicolas Roeg appears to have copped a critical mauling as much for even asking the question as for the possible answers this film presents.

I wanted to like this movie, but couldn't follow it. It flashes back and forth and provides real time dialogue intermixed with whispers, which are the main characters thoughts. She thinks she is going crazy, and after listening to all the whispering, you will think you are, too. The husband, a role phoned-in by Mark Harmon, is either dead or alive or brought back to life, or never really got hurt. I can't figure it out. Seeing Talia Shire play an overzealous nun was just bad casting. And seeing the monsignor's face transform several times in a few seconds just made me queasy. I think it was supposed to be a metaphor for her new faith being tested. The premise of the story is impressive, too bad it didn't get the screenplay it deserved.