Horror Movie Reviews
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Title: A Little Trip to Heaven (2007) |
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Review of A Little Trip to Heaven
- Three stories of human treachery are given an unexpected link in this dry comedy drama from Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Korm kur. Holt (Forest Whitaker) is an insurance investigator who is sent to Minnesota to look into a bus accident; the bus seems to have had significantly more passengers after it crashed than it had when it left the station and Holt posing as a police detective needs to know who is telling the truth and who is attempting to cash in on the tragedy. Later Holt is back on the job when a badly burned body is found in a wrecked car and the ID on the corpse indicates the victim was a small-time con artist with a police record. The victim's sister Isold (Julia Stiles) claims that her brother's accident happened after his gas tank was drained and he was struggling to make his way home on a stormy night but Holt isn't buying it; and Isold's husband Fred (Jeremy Renner) and son Thor (Alfred Harmsworth) don't seem especially trustworthy.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 687797117298 Manufacturer No: FLP-11729
Product Description
- Moody dialogue, drab lighting, and characters who aren't quite who they say they are pepper the indie film A Little Trip To Heaven. Starring Forest Whitaker as Holt (an insurance investigator looking into a man's suspicious death), and Julia Stiles as Isolde (the frightened and sketchy sister of the deceased), A Little Trip's destination actually is closer to hell than heaven. Unevenly portrayed and not well-fleshed out, not one of the characters is sympathetic. Isolde's brute of a husband is the prime suspect, but Holt--who in a different film would be the story's hero--isn't exactly a saint either. There's a particularly creepy scene where he's little more than a peeping Tom, justifying his perversion as doing what's necessary to get his job done. As shown in films such as Half Nelson and Sherrybaby, imperfect characters can make for compelling filmmaking. The problem with A Little Trip To Heaven is that we want to root for someone--anyone--but there's just no one who's worthy of our interest. --Jae-Ha Kim
Amazon.com
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Comments for A Little Trip to Heaven
- Posted on 2007-12-07
Wonderful Movie
Unlike some of the other reviewers I thought this was a great movie. The scenery was beautiful, acting excellent and I can't believe the number of people who didn't understand the story. It was fully revealed who the real Calvin was and in the end he tells his sister who actually died in the crash. It was revealed early on that he wasn't really her husband. As as for Frederick, look closely at the gravestone scene and the name on it. The insurance agent may have been protecting the agency's interest in the beginning but how he breaks from that and what he does for Thor is shear martyrdom. I highly recommend it but guess I must warn you to closely watch for all the clues.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2007-11-06
BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE
2005. Written and directed by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. Forest Whitaker is convinced that Julia Stiles and her husband try to cheat the insurance company he's working for. Kormákur who directed a few years ago the interesting 101 Reykjavík, is in his element in the morose Minnesota. Not bad.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2007-05-30
A trip nowhere near heaven
This movie felt like it depicted evil vs. evil, so it was hard to root for either side.
A horrible murder is depicted as a car accident, and the insurance beneficary waits to collect a huge sum of money. Forest Whitaker plays the insurance agent sent in to investigate. As a claims adjuster, he is always prepared to minimalize the settlement with some quick talk or some shady manipulation.
This movie had some potential, but came up short for a few reasons. The story is convoluted and unbelievable. Plus, the characters are all unlikeable and underdeveloped. I found myself rooting against both sides or just not caring about the outcome.
I was drawn to this film solely based on Whitaker's recent performance in Last King of Scotland. He does okay in this one, but the role doesn't offer him anything spectacular to work with.
I guess it's worth a rental if you're looking for an action (yawn) thriller.
Score: 3 - Posted on 2007-05-10
Dark, twisted story line with an unexpected ending
Forest Whitaker gives a powerful but understated performance in this strange twisted tale of family loyalty, greed and murder. Characters are deeply realized, plot is rock solid, and the directing is superb. Loved it.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2007-05-05
The bleak setting is its selling point...
...honestly, if this movie had been set in the suburbs of Chicago or LA or some other popular, overdone location, I wouldn't have liked it nearly as much. I wanted to take photos of most of the scenes - the barren fields, delapidated buildings and gray sky. Wow. I'm guessing it was supposed to take place in Minnesota or North Dakota.
I was kinda confused about the identities of Frederick vs. Kelvin, but overall it was a compelling story. Julia Stiles has really matured since I first saw her in 10 Things I Hate About You (she was excellent in that too though, but in a different way). I still wonder about the blood running down her leg in one of her first scenes. Was that also done by Fred?
Whitaker was fantastic as well, his character being quite likable. Shy, awkward, principled..trying to do the right thing for his company (to a point, of course) and his clients. Also liked his description of what it's like to burn to death - your eyeballs cracking like glass, your body fat bubbling out, etc. I could empathize with his character when his boss, played by Peter Coyote, makes him go on the road trips because he doesn't have a wife and kids. It's so rude how people assume that you have tons of free time if you're single. Married people get most of the breaks in life, but what else is new.
So anyway - "Thor" and "Isolde" seemed like fairly sterotypical names for people of Scandinavian-American origin, but I guess that all adds to the atmosphere.
Score: 4
