If you enjoyed Mitch
Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie, you will be pleased that his latest
work, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, does not suffer in comparison.
A made-for-TV movie, released this February on DVD, Five People
is about how each person we meet in our life, 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).
Each shows him how he
impacted their life or they his - and not always for the better. (In these
flashbacks, Callahan Brebner and Steven Grayhm play the young Eddie.) As
Eddie's wartime experiences are dramatized as well as his romance and courtship
with Marguerite, we learn a great deal about Eddie including the unfulfilled
dreams of his youth and his subsequent disillusionment. Like Sidney Lumet's
1982 film Daniel, Kramer uses colour to distinguish between past
and present: black and white for the past, blue for the present, and orange
for heaven.
The film allows us to
realise that life is not a series of random events without meaning or purpose,
but that everything happens for a reason and that it is important to communicate
with those we may have hurt, forgive others, and refrain from superficial
and wrong-headed judgments.
The Five People You
Meet in Heaven is not for those who enjoy layers of complexity in their
films or those looking for stylistic innovation. It is a simple story,
imaginatively told and the acting and the direction far exceed what we
have come to identify with TV movies of the week. The only real drawback
is the sound quality that ranges from inaudible to overly loud. Some of
the sentiment may be a little saccharine at times, but it is earned and
there is no attempt to create emotion where none exists. I found The
Five People You Meet in Heaven to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience
that, like Dickens Christmas Carol, reminds us of what is really
important in life.
GRADE: B+
Howard
Schumann