{"id":8158,"date":"2024-11-11T23:46:41","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T04:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8158"},"modified":"2024-11-11T23:46:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T04:46:41","slug":"made-in-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/11\/made-in-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Made in Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Made in Heaven <\/strong>(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lorimar\/Fantasy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violent content, brief rear nudity, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Alan Rudolph\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Mark Isham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jan Kiesser\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 6, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Timothy Hutton, Kelly McGillis, Maureen Stapleton, Ann Wedgeworth, James Gammon, Mare Winningham, Don Murray, Timothy Daly, David Rasche, Amanda Plummer, Willard E. Pugh, Vyto Ruginis, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Ric Ocasek, Marj Dusay, Ray Gideon, Zack Finch, Robert Knepper, James Tolkan, Gailard Sartain, Ellen Barkin (uncredited), Debra Winger (credited as \u201cEmmett\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $4.5M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Some people believe that God made a perfect match between every man and every woman when He created the world, \u201csoulmates\u201d if you will. It\u2019s a nice idea if you believe in such things. The romantic fantasy Made in Heaven<\/strong> uses it as the foundation for a beautiful love story about two souls who meet in Heaven and fall in love only to be separated on Earth. It may come as a complete shock to all those who think I\u2019m some deranged maniac that lives on a steady diet of violent, bloody movies, but I absolutely love Made in Heaven<\/strong>. It\u2019s an eccentric piece to be sure, but I\u2019d expect nothing less from Alan Rudolph, a filmmaker who perfectly epitomizes unconventionality.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The story begins with a young man named Mike Shea (Hutton, Ordinary People) reaching a crossroads in his life. He\u2019s recently unemployed and gets dumped by his girlfriend (Winningham, St. Elmo\u2019s Fire) for a more successful man. He decides to pick up and move to California to start a new life. Unfortunately, he never makes it. He dies while saving a young woman and her two children from drowning. He wakes up in Heaven where he\u2019s greeted by his dear, departed Aunt Lisa (Stapleton, Reds) who explains the rules of his new heavenly home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Heaven turns out to be a wonderful place where anything is possible. For example, one can visit family members or old friends simply by thinking about them. The first time Mike attempts it, he ends up in the home of a family that includes heavenly guide Annie (McGillis, The Accused). She\u2019s a \u201cnew soul\u201d meaning she\u2019s never inhabited a human body or been to Earth. The two souls fall in love and vow to be with each other forever.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Life (or Afterlife) has never been so sweet. Things are going great until Annie is sent to Earth for her tour of duty as a person. Mike is beside himself with grief and loneliness; he demands to be sent back to Earth too. The one who “runs things” in Heaven is Emmett (Winger, An Officer and a Gentleman), a chain-smoking angel who grants Mike\u2019s request with the condition that he finds his soulmate within 30 years. Neither one of them will have any conscious memory of their time together in Heaven, but they’ll know it if and when they meet each other again on Earth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mike is reborn as Elmo Barnett and Annie is reborn as Ally Chandler. Elmo’s childhood is less than idyllic. His unmarried mother lives with a mean drunk who mistreats little Elmo. Ally’s mother dies while she’s still a child. She\u2019s raised by her father (Murray, Endless Love) who opens a toy company because he wants to make people laugh. Once Elmo and Ally reach adulthood, they set out on their own paths which cross at various times. Ally, an executive at her father\u2019s company, writes a successful children\u2019s book about her childhood imaginary friend \u201cMike\u201d while her marriage to commercial director Tom (Daly, Wings) ends in divorce.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After serving in Vietnam, Elmo takes to the road as a drifter. He has a few adventures. At one point, he gets mixed up with a femme fatale type (Barkin, The Big Easy) who tricks him into helping her rob an underground casino. The thing is neither one of them is happy. There\u2019s something missing from their lives, but they don\u2019t know what. Occasionally, they get a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu brought on by a comment or something seen from the corner of their eye. Meanwhile, Elmo\u2019s 30th<\/sup> birthday keeps getting closer. Will destiny allow the two soulmates to meet again or will their paths never cross?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to jump ahead a bit and tell you what happens to Elmo when he reaches L.A. courtesy of Mike\u2019s parents, played by Ann Wedgeworth (Steel Magnolias) and James Gammon (Major League), who pick him up hitchhiking because he reminds them of his son. He becomes a musician after teaching himself to play the trumpet. Music has always been in him; he just didn\u2019t know it until somebody put a trumpet in his hands. He ends up composing a beautiful love song entitled \u201cWe Never Danced\u201d that becomes a hit. I mention this because of the joy I had watching Elmo creating the song, especially when he puts together an orchestra with the help of a record executive (Plummer, Pulp Fiction) who comes to believe in him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Alan Rudolph is an acquired taste. His movies tend to be idiosyncratic and populated by eccentric characters. His credits include Welcome to L.A., Choose Me, Trouble in Mind, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Afterglow and the abominable Breakfast of Champions. I’m not usually a fan of his work; I didn\u2019t like any of aforementioned titles. On the other hand, I LOVE Made in Heaven<\/strong>, one of the few commercial movies on his resume (alongside Roadie and Endangered Species). It\u2019s certainly his most accessible movie even with its eccentric touches like cameos by rockers Neil Young, Tom Petty and Ric Ocasek in addition to uncredited performances by Winger (Hutton\u2019s then-wife) and Barkin. If there\u2019s one thing Rudolph can do, it\u2019s putting together a great cast. Made in Heaven<\/strong> is no exception. It has a fairly impressive cast that also includes David Rasche (Sledge Hammer), Willard E. Pugh (Moving Violations) and Robert Knepper (D.O.A.).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Made in Heaven<\/strong> is nice to look at thanks to Jan Kiesser\u2019s gorgeous cinematography. He films the opening scenes in black and white in order to give the viewer a sense of time and place, post-WWII small-town America. He shifts to soft-focus color when Mike goes to Heaven where he meets people who have been dead for years like his childhood mailman (Tolkan, Back to the Future). Mike and Annie have a beautiful romantic interlude in a grassy meadow. Once both souls return to Earth, the movie takes on a different look. It resembles reality, yet there’s something unreal about it at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Made in Heaven<\/strong> is an eccentric movie; not everybody will fall in love with it. It\u2019s not your usual romantic drama. The brief encounter between Elmo and the lady gangster is truly bizarre; it seems out of place in a love story, yet feels so right in a movie with faint but distinct echoes of Jim Jarmusch. It has genuine heart and emotion throughout. It’s heartbreaking when Mike says goodbye to his parents, but even sadder when we realize he\u2019ll never see them again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Made in Heaven<\/strong> continues to tug at the heartstrings as Elmo and Ally try to figure out what\u2019s missing from their lives as fate draws them closer together. Hutton and McGillis have great chemistry together. You come to like and care about their characters. You really want them to find each other before it\u2019s too late. It\u2019s a nice thought the idea of a higher power seeing to it that two souls who clearly belong together eventually come together. It\u2019s never a direct intervention though; it\u2019s usually a nudge or a push in the right direction. In this universe, there are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason. It\u2019s part of a grand design of our lives. We never know what\u2019s around the next corner. We never know if the next face we see will be our true soulmate. At the same time, there\u2019s this part of our subconscious that will recognize our soulmate when our paths finally cross. It\u2019s a lovely thought, isn\u2019t it? The hopeless romantics for whom Made in Heaven<\/strong> is made will surely agree.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That’s what I took away from Made in Heaven<\/strong>. The more cynical among us will dismiss it as pure bunk. I prefer the more romantic viewpoint. Although it tends to move a little slowly, it\u2019s an outstanding film with a wonderful pay-off. Given Rudolph\u2019s unique style, it\u2019s easy to understand why Made in Heaven<\/strong> bombed during its one-week theatrical run. It\u2019s unfair. It deserves far more recognition than it gets. By way of a hard sell, let me say that anybody who loves Vincent Ward\u2019s 1998 romantic drama What Dreams May Come will love Made in Heaven<\/strong> as well. It\u2019s the very definition of \u201chidden treasure\u201d. It\u2019s a real find for anybody that likes a side of the Great Beyond with their love stories. It\u2019s a heavenly experience.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Made in Heaven (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lorimar\/Fantasy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violent content, brief rear nudity, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Alan Rudolph\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Mark Isham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jan Kiesser\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 6, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Timothy Hutton, Kelly McGillis, Maureen Stapleton, Ann Wedgeworth, James Gammon, Mare Winningham, Don Murray, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Made-in-Heaven-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8158"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8342,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8158\/revisions\/8342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}