Film Reviews

A Little Bit Of Heaven

• Rating:
• Director: Nicole Kassell
• Starring: Kate Hudson
• Details: US/12A 106mins

Oh, Kate Hudson. You had so much promise. It seems ironic that the worst thing to happen to the actress's career was in fact her biggest hit; when How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days hit paydirt, Hudson became attached to pretty much the same character, playing her again and again. That in turn caused a ripple effect, making other talented actresses like Katherine Heigl and Kristen Bell bottom-feed off the desperate singleton scrap roles that are rampant in Hollywood. Here, she's the same hip, trendy and cool chick, living in a hip, trendy and cool apartment, hanging out with her hip, trendy and cool friends. She's also just recently found out she's gonna kick the bucket. Harsh.
Hudson is a fun-loving, carefree and promiscuous young woman in the prime of her life. She has a cool job, a cool dog, and has been blessed with the kind of inoffensive good looks the cast of Fair City would kill for. But when her hot young doctor (Bernal doing some serious 'smell the fart' acting) informs her that she has advanced colon cancer, she goes through the typical stages of mourning before riding him like Seabiscuit. Somewhere in the middle of it all, she meets God - who's played by Whoopi Goldberg. Seriously.
It's very easy to see what A Little Bit of Heaven's intentions were; it's trying to be a film that deals with serious subject matter (buying the farm) in a way that's not morbid or overly ponderous. Instead, it went in the other direction and has Kate Hudson sitting on a cloud with Whoopi Goldberg, discussing her love life. Will some find it chucklesome and sweet? Sure. Some of the best comedy comes from tragedy, but this film never offers up a real person to care about. We do meet the obligatory gay friend, quirky friend, married friend, cute kids and dog, though. Actually, I liked the dog.
Hudson is a talented actress and she's working with a talented director - Nicole Kassell made a daring, brave film a few years ago called The Woodsman. How it's all gone so wrong is everyone's fault; the script is condescending, the tone is all over the shop and the acting generally akin to an average game of The Sims. Pretty bad, then.
If you want to see a film that deals with the fragility of life this weekend, then I recommend Never Let Me Go. This is crap, though.

Review by Mike Sheridan