The Five People You Meet In Heaven (2004)

Memorable, crazy movie

Absolutely the worst movie.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

This is one of the best movies that exists! Jon Voight is an awesome actor and he played the role so very well. In this movie, Eddie (Voight) is a maintenance worker at a small amusement park on a pier. A nice man yet not happy with his life, he feels trapped and feels that he didn't accomplish what he had wanted when he was young. As he is working one day, he sacrifices his own life as he tries to save a young child from a potentially life-threatening situation. This begins his journey to Heaven. Along the way, he meets five people that show him he was right where he belonged and right where God wanted him all along. He learns some truths behind some of the saddest and some of the happiest times of his life. Beautifully written with wonderful acting, this movie will move you. Even if you are not religious, you will love every second of this movie.

Mr. Mitch Albom is the author of one great book ("Tuesdays with Morrie")and a few good books,of which "Five People..." is one.The same concerns the screen adaptations:the former (starring the incomparable Jack Lemmon)is a great one , though much, much underestimated by critics and audience;the latter is just a decent effort to illustrate the book.The difference is obvious: "Tuesdays" is a true story of a real life, wonderfully ( and simply) written, wonderfully ( and without that cheap Hollywood sentimentality) and simply put on the screen, while "Five People" is a piece of fiction with quite a bit of sentimentality, which was (quite naturally for Hollywood!)made into a tear-jerker.True, the acting is good (just good ),the colours are disgustingly bright and suggestive (believe me, the audience are not all fools to be reminded every minute , which part is Heaven, which is the good old Earth,etc),the plot line is not broken, the characters are more or less recognizable ( compared with the book),but there is always an after-taste of something inappropriately sweet that has been swallowed, and this diminishes the otherwise good work of the team of true professionals.While"Tuesdays with Morrie" was in many ways an eye-opener ("Wow, we still have great teachers of life among us!","What a magnificent life lived!","What a wonderful lesson of complete self-sacrifice!"))and a challenge to all Hollywood clichés,"Five People" deals with a pretty banal idea of interconnection of all things and people in the Universe and - as a film version - follows all the traditions of the Hollywood melodrama.And yet,in our age of extinct kindness and sympathy, such books and films should be more than welcome- just as a reminder that we still belong to the human race.

If you've read Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, then you know the author's got a way with wrenching your emotions. I've never teared up as much as when I'd read that book; the story of a student and his old teacher who was dying of a horribly debilitating disease. But it also had a fairly high schmaltz factor. THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN also has that sappiness running through it, but with a serious religious bent to boot (not surprising considering the title).The story is that of Eddie (Jon Voight, NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS) and his life as a repairman at an entertainment park. Many things have happened at this unique place. It's where Eddie's father worked day in and day out all of his life. It's where Eddie fell in love with his future wife Marguerite (Dagmar Dominczyk, 24 TV Series). It's the place where Eddie would leave in order to fight and become injured in WW II. And it's where Eddie would eventually die while trying to save the life of a child.The story takes place immediately after Eddie's death, and we get to see five flashbacks via five people that Eddie thought he never knew. The first is Blue Man (Jeff Daniels, THE LOOKOUT) who was a sideshow freak at the carnival. Little did Eddie know he'd touched Blue Man in a very special way, but also may have been partially responsible for his death.The second is Captain (Michael Imperioli, SHARK TALE) who was his commanding officer during WW II. Both having been captured and tortured during the war, they also broke themselves free and torched their prison before departing. It was also during this time that Eddie was wounded in the knee, making him unable to walk normally for the rest of his life. But who shot him? And were there any people in those prison huts they burned down? The third person is Eddie's own Marguerite. Having not seen his wife since her death many years before, Eddie comes to understand just how much he loved her ...but also how much he'd held back due to his own past during the war.The fourth is someone he'd never met in life but had worked for during most of his time on Earth, Ruby (Ellen Burstyn, THE FOUNTAIN), for whom the park was named where Eddie worked. The destruction and rebuilding of Ruby's Pier (the name of the entertainment park) is an analogy for the same thing Eddie must do in order to salvage himself from the destructive behavior toward his abusive father.The fifth and final person is someone, again, Eddie had never met but who's life he touched in a very significant way. Telling you who and how this happened would be a huge spoiler, so I'll just say that, in true scripture fashion, Eddie is able to "wash away" his sins and become someone worthy of heavenly entry.The biggest challenge for some viewers will be trying to separate the acting/scenes with the religious themes being rammed down their throats. But if you're able to separate them, you might enjoy it on some levels. Although morally it's a tale of one man's eventual redemption in the afterlife, it also has some pretty good acting and interesting sets for a made-for-TV Hallmark presentation.A message to those who are "true believers": please try not to thump your bibles too loudly.

Eddie learns a lesson from I think it was the first person he meets in heaven. He talks to him about sacrifice. He says sacrifice is the noblest thing we do as humans. We don't really lose anything, we just pass it on to someone else.Each person Eddie meets in heaven he must learn from. I personally, really appreciate the afore mentioned lesson and all the lessons in this movie. It was very uplifting and tries to tackle the very tough question: what do our lives really mean and matter? It goes a long a similar thread like M. Night Shyamalan's Signs. If you liked that one you'll appreciate this one. Likewise, it also does have a revelation at the end but you are pulled into Eddie's story from the beginning and you learn along the way with him.