Made In Heaven (DVD)

...players in his next movie Made In Heaven. Divine declined the offer to follow Rudolph into this project having already agreed to work on Hairspray with his old buddy John Waters.

Made In Heaven is a romantic drama entertaing a thought that you can love the same person in both Heaven and on the Earth. Mike Shea has just been dropped by his girlfriend who has decided to marry a long time rival of Mike's. Annoyed with what has transpired ...
...erased.

Made In Heaven plays out like a who's who of entertainers. Popular actors of the day Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis played Mike and Annie respectively. But it's the other actors whose brief appearances make the movie special Ellen Barkin, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Stephen Rae, Amanda Plummer, Mark Isham, Maureen Stapleton and James Gammon all turn out brief appearances, you'll also see a dozen or so faces you know but cant ... more

Having wrapped filming on Trouble In Mind, Alan Rudolph went to work on his next movie. Having been inspired by Divine's performance as someone not in the movie too much, but having a presence across the whole piece. He sought out an unusual character for one of his key players in his next movie Made In Heaven. Divine declined the offer to follow Rudolph into this project having already agreed to work on Hairspray with his old buddy John Waters.

Made In Heaven is a romantic drama entertaing a thought that you can love the same person in both Heaven and on the Earth. Mike Shea has just been dropped by his girlfriend who has decided to marry a long time rival of Mike's. Annoyed with what has transpired Mike heads off to California to make a new life for himself. Not 100 miles into his travel Mike sees a group of people standing in amazement looking over a bridge into the water, to his horror he realises they are watching a woman and her two children drown in their car. Mike jumps in to the rescue, and having got the children clear returns for the mother; just at the point the gets the mother clear from the wreckage both Mike and the car sink to the bottom of the river, Mike is dead.

This is not the end however, Mike awakes to find himself in heaven and finds that despite the obvious sadness of being there, there is a lot to be joyful of too. Soon he meets Annie a guide to newcomers in Heaven, someone who has never lived on Earth. The two fall in love and plan to enjoy a perfect marriage together. But on their wedding day Annie gets the call, she is to be sent to Earth to liver her life. Devastated by events Mike approaches Emmet, the closest person to God he can reach and begs for Annie to be sent back. Emmet assures Mike that this cannot be done, but being a great believer in love and appreciative of Mike's terrible fate Emmet makes Mike a proposition. Mike will be returned to Earth and he will have 30 years to meet up with his flame Annie; if they do not meet up then they will never be together again. All seems fairly straight forward, however Mike did not realise that in his return to Earth his memory would be erased.

Made In Heaven plays out like a who's who of entertainers. Popular actors of the day Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis played Mike and Annie respectively. But it's the other actors whose brief appearances make the movie special Ellen Barkin, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Stephen Rae, Amanda Plummer, Mark Isham, Maureen Stapleton and James Gammon all turn out brief appearances, you'll also see a dozen or so faces you know but cant put names too. While I'm here its important to mention Emmet Humbird, a chain smoking boss in Heaven, the closest thing to God and certainly the most masculine character in the movie. The actor playing Emmet was never truly realised until over a year later, when an interview made by the star promoting another movie made her slip up, Emmet was played by popular actress of the 80's Debra Winger (An Officer & A Gentleman, Black Widow). This came as one of the biggest shocks that the movie delivered and Winger became appreciated in a whole new light.

Made In Heaven is very much a cult movie, and rather like Marmite you either love it or you hate it. When I first saw it back in 1987 I felt that it was pretty near on awful, but further viewings made me appreciate it more, as I guess did age. As I have often found an older wiser head certainly makes all the difference, and Made In Heaven became in my eyes a lost classic. And lost it certainly is, despite claims by Amazon, Made In Heaven has never been released on DVD. And only shortly seen on VHS in this country 20 years ago. Made In Heaven instead sits in unusual graveyard slots on TV, I have caught it as late as 4 am and as early as 6 am. And while I'm here its important to point out that the movie is currently screening on Sky Cinema having repurchased it for the first time in 19 years.

On to the movie, it's a very artsty movie, before arriving in Heaven Mike's life is filmed in Sepia (a brownish orange print but not quite black and white), upon arrival in Heaven things become far brighter and far more colourful. The return to Earth however features a darker palette of colours, while the film colour is normal Alan Rudolph has found darker colours to portray life back on earth, lots of dark browns, grey and black. This is a clear indication of the darkness back on Earth, and shows you the circles that Mike in particular moves in.

The movie itself is well written but at times a bit sickening, especially scenes involving Kelly McGillis, nice as she is to look at she comes off as being very false, and cringe worthy is a very good word to sum her up. Timothy Hutton however balances out her weaknesses and luckily the focus of the movie is based more around him than her.
The tale at times becomes incredibly emotional for the viewer as Mike encounters characters from his old life as Mike in his new one as Elmos, most noticeably his parents. While he had no idea who they were as a viewer your only too aware, and the news that his Mother is dying is quite a painful one to watch, especially when they see Mike when looking at him.
An annoying factor of the movie is that the characters that both the romantic leads encounter on their travels bring each other closer together, but they never acknowledge each other simply passing each other in the street. More alarmingly your giving a false sense of security in the knowledge that these two must meet up at the end, and while I'm not saying either way if they do or not ir you have allowed yourself to become emerged in the film your likely to find the last 20 minutes painful edge of your seat viewing.

I consider myself to be a bit of a horror movie fanatic focusing on some of the most graphic movies ever made. But I cannot deny that even in my hardened shell I enjoy the odd romantic tale and on this note, for me Made In Heaven is a definite winner.  

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