A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN
US, 2010, 107 minutes, Colour.
Kate Hudson, Gael Garcia Bernal, Kathy Bates, Treat Williams, Lucy Punch, Rosemary De Witt, Peter Dinklage, Whoopi Goldberg.
Directed by Nicole Kassell.
Usually, a little bit of heaven refers to something here on earth. It does do this with this romantic comedy, but there is also some anticipation of life after death. We do not have many films from the mainstream which openly acknowledge the reality of death.
We are introduced to Marley (a bright Kate Hudson), a successful advertising executive with a wide range of friends, living a rather frivolous out-of-hours life with more than a touch of hedonism. She seems stressed but soon discovers she has colon cancer. How does she face the prospect of death? What must she do to make her life complete?
She has a comedy version of a near death experience, imagining God looking and sounding like Whoopi Goldberg (genial at least). Marley has lived a self-centred life, unable to make commitments. Her progress towards death is marked by some angry outbursts against friends and family, but she is moved to fall in love and to make steps towards reconciliation with everyone.
Kathy Bates and Treat Williams play her parents, bitter towards each other, but finding ways to share in their daughter’s final months. The doctor is played by Gael Garcia Bernal (not one of his best roles) as a joke-free specialist who succumbs to Marley’s love and changing for the better.
This plot is very similar to a Filipino film, 100 (where the dramatising of the final ritual is anointing of the sick and communion followed by the central character watching her wake contrasts with the more secular ritual of a Little Bit of Heaven where family and friends gather and have a New Orleans party – with When the Saints go Marching in – and Marley and God look on and Marley joins in the dance).
1. The title, an afterlife, a bit of Heaven on Earth, Vince and his nickname? Possibilities about the future? Life after death?
2. The impact for those who believe in life after death? For non-believers? For rationalists and sceptics?
3. The emotional arguments for life after death, the experience of illness, dying, love, the end of life and completion of life?
4. The New Orleans setting, the business world, affluent? Families, friends? Restaurants, clubs, zoos, the streets? The hospital and consulting rooms? American life?
5. The range of songs, the artists, the lyrics, the group and their continually appearing in the plot? At the end?
6. Molly’s story? Kate Hudson as Molly? Her life, age, suffering from stress, skill at her work, her partners at work, getting up in the morning, hurrying to work, the advertising agency, the condoms? Her permissive style? The celebration, the sexual partner, inability to commit? Her parents, her wariness about their failed marriage? Renee and her husband, social visits, caring for their little girl, the outings? Renee and her husband, pregnancy? Sarah, her art, friendship? Molly’s lifestyle?
7. Her friends urging her to go to the doctor, hospital, Julian Goldstein and the discussions about his name? Short, stern? Matter-of-fact? The Mexican background? His manner, the examination, detail and accuracy, the tests, the results? Her reaction to his telling her the truth? The way she told her friends in the middle of a meal? Her mother, her mother sobbing?
8. The hospital, treatment, her decision to stop? The senior doctor, watching her, his advice to Julian?
9. Her out-of-body experience? Whoopi Goldberg as God, the jokes explaining Whoopi Goldberg’s presence? The three wishes? The flying, the money – and God telling Molly that she would find the third? God’s later appearance, after the accident, on the cloud overlooking New Orleans, God telling her that she should tell people that she loved them? God at the end? A playful image of God?
10. Renee and her husband, her pregnancy, the child-minding? Renee and Molly perceiving her distance from her, the visit of the other women, Molly’s outburst against her? Coming back, knocking at the door, Renee refusing to come, her weeping? The apology? The birth at the time of Molly’s death?
11. Peter, his friendship, gay, neighbourly, the food, the dancing, Molly being hurtful to him and his friend? Her apology?
12. Sarah, eccentric, sharing Molly’s life, perspective, her art, the painting? The gift of the exhibition after Molly’s death?
13. The episode with Vince, short, his arrival, Peter and the joke, the escort background, his nickname, Molly and her stand, getting him back, playing cards, the simulation of sex and playing the joke on Peter?
14. Molly’s mother and father, the meal with them, their immediately arguing, Molly and her exasperation? Molly and her attacks on her mother, her mother saying she was glad that her husband had given her a daughter? The father, Molly cutting off his phone calls? His later phone call, the meeting, the dinner, his awkwardness, not knowing what to say, Molly walking out, his explaining himself – and her telling him that he had achieved what she wanted? His reading to her as she was dying?
15. Her relationship with Julian, professional, getting information? Trying to tell him jokes – and his continued attempt to tell jokes? The senior doctor and the warning? Julian inviting Molly to the benefit, the date, sharing, the affair, playing with the yo-yo? Each falling in love? Going flying and the exhilaration of hang-gliding? Her aggressive behaviour towards him, apology? His swimming, the phone call, her dying, his final presence at her bedside, the kiss, love? As a character?
16. Her mother and her care, weeping, talking, helping with the funeral, the bequest to Sarah?
17. The accident, Molly and her anger, meeting God again, God telling her to rethink her attitude, tell Julian that she loved him? Her going through the series of apologies, the reconciliations?
18. Her dying, appearance, weak, talking, in bed, the collage of the various people assisting at her bedside? Their reading to her? Her fading away and dying?
19. The funeral, the songs, Just a Closer Walk, When the Saints Come Marching In? Molly watching across the river, the people rejoicing in her memory, dancing? Molly joining in the dance during the final credits?
20. A film that faces up to the reality of death, the story of a person who is ordinary, even frivolous, to the reassessment of her life and its completion?
