A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN

Iceland, 2005, 98 minutes, Colour.
Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles, Jeremy Renner, Peter Coyote, Philip Jackson.
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur.

A Little Trip to Heaven was made in Iceland, standing in for the northern states like Minnesota. However, it looks very much like the terrain of Iceland. The director is Baltasar Kormakur who made the award-winning 101 Reykjavik.

The film is about insurance fraud. The film opens with Forest Whitaker as an expert in unmasking loopholes in policies for his boss, Peter Coyote. He travels to identify the body of a dead man, the criminal brother of the dead man’s sister who has a million-dollar policy, Julia Stiles. He meets her husband, played by Jeremy Renner. However, the whole set-up is a scam and Renner has actually killed an innocent vagrant in place of the alleged criminal brother.

The film focuses on tension in relationships, the consequences of the fraud, the violence and the result for the young woman and her son. The insurance officer has compassion on the young woman for her plight and risks imprisonment himself by changing the information on the policy.

While the landscapes are different, the plot is familiar. It is interesting to see the American stars in this setting. However, it does not quite click as a well-paced thriller nor a domestic drama.

1.The impact of the film? Drama? Thriller? Mystery? Confidence tricks?

2.The Icelandic director, his writing the story and setting it in the United States? The Iceland landscape standing in for the United States? The musical score?

3.The songs, the lyrics, the comment on characters and the plot? ‘A Little Trip to Heaven’ and its lyrics?

4.The opening, Abe and Frank, their dealing with the client, looking at the fine print of the contract, being able to save the insurance company money? Frank and his role as the boss, orders for Abe, decisions for him?

5.Abe, his work, a loner? Going to visit Isold? His knowing the background? The accident, the dead body, his going to the scene, the discussions with the police? His staying in the town, questions? With Josie at the hotel? The relationship with her?

6.Seeing the brother, pretending to be the husband, actually the father of the boy? His wife having left him? Isold and her standing in as the mother of the boy? Yet the audience not knowing the details and making presumptions about incest?

7.Fred, his setting up the man in the bar, draining the car of petrol, giving a lift, crashing the car, escaping? His background as the brother, his being in jail, thinking up the fraud, getting the name of a dead man as Isold’s husband? Getting a million dollars through the death clause?

8.Isold, living isolated, with the boy? Mothering the boy? The interactions with Fred, his really being her brother? The violent clashes? His taking the boy? Her trying to recover the boy?

9.Abe, the discussions, his realisation of the truth? Going to the school, looking at the records, being exposed in his lies? Going to the cemetery, finding the gravestone?

10.Fred, his violence, the car chase, his treatment of Abe, the accident? Abe dead or not?

11.Isold, the policy, Abe having changed the marriage certificate, the clauses in the insurance contract? Her getting the money – the contrast with the fifteen thousand, Abe putting the previous cheque on hold, Fred and his anger about such a small amount of money?

12.The tragedy for Abe? The benefit for Isold and her son?