Friday, March 21, 2008

Movie Review: As it is in Heaven

The loss of passion for something we love is a deeply disturbing journey to travel. Unfortunately, we often become burned out doing the things that are most meaningful to us so that we just can’t seem to continue any longer. As it is in Heaven takes us on one man’s journey to recover his lost joy. Daniel Dareus (Michael Nyqvist) is a famous orchestral conductor who has always dreamed of opening people’s hearts with music. Daniel experiences a heart attack, physically and spiritually, and he retires to his childhood town in the far north of Sweden where he was bullied as a child. He buys the old school house and sets up his home. The small town has a church choir made up of the usual motley normality of people. When they discover that Daniel has arrived, they immediately invite him along to hear their choir - just to listen and maybe offer some helpful advice. Daniel visits and it becomes obvious that the choir wants a bit more from him - they’d like him to be their director and conductor. Daniel accepts the challenge and, as he entices the group to create music that speaks to the heart, he rediscovers the joy of music that he has lost. This joy comes at a price. As he develops relationships with the people in the choir, one of whom becomes a love interest, he has to deal with those who misunderstand his intentions - the priest whose power is challenged; members who falsely accuse him of trying to use the choir for his own "evil" purposes; issues of choir members whose personal struggles spill over into choir practice; the oppression of "true" religion. And most of all, Daniel struggles with his own heart as he is confronted by the grace he experiences from the people he comes to know and love. As it is in Heaven is an absolutely wonderful, moving, heart-changing, inspiring story that was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 77th Academy Awards. When the film ran in Australia at the independent Cremorn Orpheum cinema in Sydney, it became the longest running film in Australia. I understand that it ran in Sweden for 52 weeks! The films success has been primarily by word of mouth. The title of the film, As it is in Heaven, is a fascinating one which I have mulled over since seeing the movie. Obviously, it is a reference to the phrase in the Lord’s prayer, ’Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. The challenge is to tease out the reason for this title for this story. Heaven as a place is never really mentioned in the film. Daniel’s journey towards the healing of his "heart" is full of pain, mistakes, difficult relationships, and emotional hurt. The same is true of every one of the people in the choir - they are struggling with hurt, abuse from those they love, oppressive religious "righteousness", misunderstandings. But when the grace of unconditional love and acceptance grips them, inspired by the transcendence experienced as they enter fully into singing and music, they are transformed - not from the outside in, but from the inside out. The choir is a metaphor for heaven. Made up of flawed people who accept one another for who they are, the commit themselves to loving each other and lovingly serving others by sharing their passion for music. As they perform they transform the lives of others - not by imposing a false religiosity; not by demanding that certain rules be kept - but by allowing the grace they have experienced to flow through their lives and wrap itself around those who hear them. By experiencing their full humanity and the grace of others who accept them as they are they can’t help but pass this on to others - unforced, inspiring, and life-changing. What is it like to have heaven on earth? Heaven is not about bringing about some pure, perfect, idyllic state where nothing "bad" happens and where we all behave perfectly. Heaven is about grace through and through. Heaven occurs wherever real people, who struggle with what it means to be truly human, experience the gracious, unconditional acceptance of the God who has reconciled himself to all people whoever we are, whatever we are. The priest in the film is an arrogant, self-righteous, puritanical, controlling goody-goody. In a climactic clash between him and his wife who is a member of the choir the priest tells his wife to ask for God’s forgiveness. In one of the most powerful and memorable lines in the movie, his wife shoots back the line, "God doesn’t forgive; He has never condemned.’ The director, Pollak, has said that, to understand the film, we need to realise that the entire message of the movie is in this one line - "The idea that absolute, complete love doesn’t condemn." (quoted by Amanda Wilson, Sydney Morning Herald) Now, that really reframes God’s love! And when this love is experienced it transforms our lives and we truly experience heaven on earth. Don’t miss this movie. Turn your video stores inside out to find it. Then watch it and let it work its gracious power on you - let God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven - God’s deep desire to love you unconditionally and for you to be transformed to love God and others, no matter how flawed, in the way that God has loves us. At the end of the movie, one of the characters in the story sings a solo. One of the lines is ’I want to feel that I have lived my life.’ This, surely, is the yearning that most of us have. Grace is the only way to feel as though we have lived our lives. My Rating: ****1/2 (out of 5) You can purchase As it is in Heaven by clicking here. (This link is to a PAL (non-USA) version, but other formats are available at Amazon.)

20 comments:

  1. Great review you have there; makes me want to go out and watch the film.

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  2. When i saw 'Thinking Christian' i must admit i thought here we go again. And after just watching the movie myself to write about in an essay, i was more than a little sceptical about what your review was going to be.
    But i think you've hit the nail. You've put to words what i was struggling to. Great review. See this movie if you haven't it really gives a great perspective of God and his Kingdom.

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  3. Thanks, Marita... I appreciate the feedback.

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  4. My friend forwarded this review to me, after having seen the movie together, last night. We both left the theater, chewing on many of the ideas presented in the movie.

    I think you've spelled it out perfectly in your review, particularly in this line, "Heaven occurs wherever real people, who struggle with what it means to be truly human..." I cut the line short, leaving out the part about "unconditional acceptance of God", because I think moreover, the importance has to placed on the human. I often find a danger, in the belief that our actions are to please or seek "acceptance" in a God, which is intangible. It causes people to live a life, that may not be true to their soul. If humans would treat each other with humanity, and respect one another for the graces we posses; we would be a lot closer to "heaven", on earth. The life we are living now, here on earth, is the only one, we truly know exists and we need to live our lives, as if it is the only one.

    Long pauses and a bit slow, but altogether, a lovely movie with a healthy message.

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  5. Hi Amanda

    Glad you enjoyed the movie. I was interested in your cutting the sentence short because of the danger you see in believing 'that our actions are to please or seek "acceptance" in a God...'

    I may not have spelled this out as clearly as I should have. I don't believe we can ever seek acceptance from God because, whoever we are and whatever we have done, God already has accepted us. God accepts us long before we even become aware of God. We don't have to try to earn God's acceptance at all. The idea that we do (or could) is, in my view, quite against the gospel taught by Jesus in the New Testament.

    When the motley choir gets together to sing, they revel in the already-accepted relationship with God and sing with abandonment, freedom, and celebration!

    Hope that clarifies things!

    Steve

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  6. I watched this movie tonite. Thanks so much for your excellent review!! I must share it!

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  7. You're welcome, Sharon. Glad you enjoyed it!

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  8. I just finished seeing AS IT IS IN HEAVEN and researching about the movie I found your blog with a review of the movie. I fully agree with your thoughts and comments and I commend you on your interesting blog. I also have recently started a blog and I'd be interested in your perusing it, if you like. It's at http://armfiore.blogspot.com

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  9. great review

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  10. God bless Netflix for carrying this movie so I could discover this gem and God bless you for writing such a wonderful review. I just got through watching the movie and was deeply touched but couldn't put my finger on why it was so profound to me. But your opening line "The loss of passion for something we love" gave me the answer. There was a lot more that I did discover and can't wait to get up to heaven with all the other misfits. :) This is a wonderful blog and I look forward to reading future posts.

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  11. Ditto on the above comment. Found this movie on Netflix as well . It has been in my Que for a few months. Finally got to watch this gem. Terrific review. Hope more people take a chance on this film and watch it.

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  12. Hi I just happend to find the movie on the DVD rental shop's shelf and got it and watched on the weekend. I was very moved. I cried.
    The movie just draws out a deep phylosophy on life. the line that lingers on most in my mind is "There is no death" by Lena when she spoke about the angels mural painting to Daniel in his room. and the fact that she could see the wings on Daniel,It immediately made me realise that it was predicting his departure from this life.
    I highly recommend this movie to people.
    Also, a Japanese movie titled "Departures" (2004) is a great movie which is about life and a new biginning.

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  13. I am trying to understand the scene where Lena speaks of Angel wings and there is no death. She said that she 'always knew'. What is she referring to? Can she sense when someone is dying? Does she feel that she is dying? I've watched this movie three times now and just can't grasp what is going on in this scene. Also, when Daniel rides away from Lena at the lake. Is he upset because he thinks she knowingly had an affair with a married man or is it because he can't commit to Lena???

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  14. I just got done watching it on Netflix. Even though I did not care much for the nudity toward the end (they could have kept the exact plot without taking off their close :-), overall, I found it to be a deep inspiring movie about finding the best in people and helping them to discover the good in them. It was also a good illustration of loving, accepting people just as they are unconditionally how God loves us.

    I feel that I am starting to develop a taste for Swedish movies. I also saw "Mother of Mine" on Netflix a couple of days ago, it is swedish movie that is quite captivating about Finland's children that were sent to Sweden for protection during WWII

    Thank you for your review above, very thoughtful and inspiring.

    May God bless you.

    A brother in Christ from Wichita, KS USA

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  15. To fully appreciate this wonderful movie, you should notice all the analogies to The Passion of Christ. Just one example: The three women (three Marias of the Bible) dragging Daniel inside on the carpet after he has been beaten by Conny. This will also explain the question about Lenas statement "There is no death". God bless!

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  16. Hi Steve,
    I was doing a search of others' reviews of "As it is in Heaven" and yours popped up near the top. I am just now doing a short review of it for my blog on my new website. I love that movie, as I see you do too. Anyhow, just wanted to say "hey" and that you have a great website. Keep up the good work!

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  17. Uh, wait a minute. Did you happen to catch the scene where Inge tells Stig, "There is no sin! All this damn talk! It only exists in your head." Stig answers, "There is no sin? Think of what you're saying." Inge, "I have thought. The church invented sin. Handing out guilt with one hand then offering redemption with the other." If Inge is saying there is no sin, then there are no sinners. If there are no sinners then Christ died needlessly. This movie is a flat out rejection of the gospel unless you believe the gospel to be about something other than God demonstrating His love for the world by sending His son to die on the cross for our sins. If that's not your gospel then it's another gospel which is no gospel at all. You need to be careful. Someone once said in regard to speaking the truth in love, "Truth without love is brutality. However, love without truth is sentimentality." What this movie was with all it's love and sentimentality was the absence of the truth of the gospel.

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    1. Thanks. Someone needed to say that.

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  18. Michael, the CONTEXT in which that sin discussion occurred within the movie was Inger's desire to have a normal, healthy, sexual relationship with her husband, who was guilt ridden over sex. They had one night of passion, and then he went back to his guilt-ridden ways. So, I think that Inger's comment was that the church made up sins that don't really exist. Are you trying to say here that it is a sin for a husband and wife to have a loving and fulfilling sexual relationship?

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  19. Michael,

    The context in which that discussion happened was over Inger's desire to have a normal and healthy sexual relationship with her HUSBAND, who was guilt ridden by sex. I think she was trying to say that the church has made up so many "sins" that really are not sin. They had one night of passion, then he went back to his guilt ridden ways. So, are you saying that it is a sin for a husband and wife to have a loving and fulfilling sexual relationship?

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