A Little Trip to Heaven (2005)
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33% of critics liked it
(6 reviews) -
43% of users liked it
(2,432 ratings)
Three stories of human treachery are given an unexpected link in this dry comedy drama from Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur. Holt (Forest Whitaker) is an insurance investigator who is sent to Minnesota to look into a bus accident; the bus seems to have had significantly more passengers after… More Three stories of human treachery are given an unexpected link in this dry comedy drama from Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur. Holt (Forest Whitaker) is an insurance investigator who is sent to Minnesota to look into a bus accident; the bus seems to have had significantly more passengers after it crashed than it had when it left the station, and Holt, posing as a police detective, needs to know who is telling the truth and who is attempting to cash in on the tragedy. Later, Holt is back on the job, when a badly burned body is found in a wrecked car, and the ID on the corpse indicates the victim was a small-time con artist with a police record. The victim's sister, Isold (Julia Stiles), claims that her brother's accident happened after his gas tank was drained and he was struggling to make his way home on a stormy night, but Holt isn't buying it; and Isold's husband, Fred (Jeremy Renner), and son, Thor (Alfred Harmsworth), don't seem especially trustworthy. Finally, a man and a woman struggle to make their way to shore after their car sails off a cliff into a body of water. While they seem grateful to make it back to dry land, it seems the woman has reason to be unhappy with her mate when she viciously attacks him. Who are these people, and what is their story? A Little Trip to Heaven received its North American premier at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Baltasar Kormákur, Alfred Harmsworth
- Written By
- Baltasar Kormákur
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy
R,
- In Theaters
- Mar 13, 2007 Wide
- Studio
- First Look Home Entertainment
Critic Reviews
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Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
Kormakur, who directed and co-wrote the script with Edward Martin Weinman, falls short in the story department and even shorter in evoking the droll, twisted humor that must carry the day.
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Jeremy Mathews, Film Threat
A stylish film that captures the bleak gloom of a desolate town and contrasts it with a satire of insurance commercials that concentrate on happy, sunny days -- not the ones that require insurance
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David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...needlessly arty...
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Jon Popick, Planet Sick-Boy
This is a very dark, very pretty picture (photographed by Óttar Guđnason) that has little else to offer, and its ending, at least for my taste, was a little corny.
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Boyd van Hoeij, european-films.net
The director also has a strong visual sense, turning the barren wastelands of Minnesota into the visual equivalent of the Reagan era of corporate greed in which the story is set.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
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Featured Audience Ratings
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Cast
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Forest Whitaker
as Holt
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Julia Stiles
as Isold
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Jeremy Renner
as Fred
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Peter Coyote
as Frank
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Philip Jackson
as William
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Anne Reid
as Martha
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Phyllida Law
as Headmistress
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Alfred Harmsworth
as Thor
- Joanna Scanlan
- Iddo Goldberg
- Vladas Bagdonas
- Matyelok Gibbs
- Damon Younger
- Juan Carlos Pardo Pardo
- Kharl Anton Leigh
- Maria Fernandez Ache
