Based on a myriad of very positive comments here, as well as my experience watching the director's previous film _The Ugly_ and enjoying it, I rented _Heaven_. What an awful film! Don't believe the hype. There's a very good reason this bypassed theaters and went straight to video. It's an ugly, mean-spirited, depressing film, with characters that it is hard to understand and like. The acting is good--it's amazing to see Richard Schiff, so likeable on _The West Wing_, playing such a sleaze. Martin Donovan is good, as are Joanna Going and Patrick Malahide. Too bad the story doesn't have more going for it. And what's with the son of Donovan/Going's characters? Both of them have obvious American accents, but the kid talks like he just got off the plane from Australia or New Zealand (the latter, I guess). Other than chopping things up and presenting them out of order, so that what we think is going to happen isn't necessarily what does happen, this film really has very little going for it. _Memento_ it is NOT! Here's hoping that Scott Reynold's next film, _When Strangers Appear_ is an improvement.
