paloma54 This movie seemed to be a sure winner based on reviews, yet my husband and I were shocked at the terrible acting by Michael Nyquist, the overblown behavior as well as superficiality of all the characters, the presence of everyone's (sadly, it would seem) favorite paper tiger faux-Christian pastor stereotype, and an aimless wandering plot, not to mention the completely unrealistic cop-out ending.There are endless long shots of Daniel (Nyquist) simply staring, without any clue as to what he is thinking or feeling, and there is precious little spoken dialogue, even when he is accused irrationally and unjustly by town gossips. Is this some sort of pathetic attempt to equate him to the Christ who offers no defense in the court of Pontius Pilate? Are we supposed to think he is autistic? Why the heck doesn't he respond? It comes across as wholly unrealistic.As a committed Christian, I find the constant view of Christians as narrow-minded, sexually repressed hypocrites downright offensive as well as unrealistic. PLEASE people. Sex just happens to be God's idea, not ours! And yes indeed I know a few hypocrites who are Christians, but I also know a whole lot of non-Christian hypocrites as well. Hypocrisy, as well as every other moral failure, is to be found in the human race as a whole. And any serious Christian would surely know how severely Jesus judged the hypocrites of his day. At the least, the cardboard caricature of the priest was simply a crashing bore, reducing the plot lines to a childishly simple narrative of black and white without any coloration.The musical aspect of this film was the biggest disappointment to me. Having an extensive classical music background myself, heavily weighted with choral singing experience, I found the musical examples, and the behavior of all the choir folks, and Daniel in particular, to be cheesy, atypical, and as if musical ignoramuses had made this movie.Epic failure.

Rebecca Lynn Through music, humans can express the yearnings of our souls and form deep bonds with those around us. Kay Pollack's Oscar nominated Film, As it is in Heaven, explores the power of music and the lasting effects it can have on a community. Despite the film's tired and overused plot line, it shines with complex, appealing characters and an exploration of both the relationships and the isolation the villagers feel among each other.The film takes off running, and within the first ten minutes, Daniel (played by a brooding yet charming Michael Nyqvist) experiences childhood bullying, watches his mother die, becomes a world famous conductor, and has a heart attack while conducting in Milan. Thankfully, the movie slows down after this introduction, and Daniel settles into a quiet life in his old hometown to spend some time "listening". What follows is a standard formula–the town pastor, a fussy, sin-obsessed man, gives Daniel control over the ragtag band of villagers who make up the church choir. Daniel's passion to "create music that will open a person's heart" succeeds, and his arrival in the town triggers sweeping changes.The film works due to its vivid characterization of individual members of the choir and their journeys to self-discovery once Daniel enables them to learn how to truly listen to themselves and each other. The choir, often acting as a group therapy session, enables the villagers (all a little broken in their own way) to reveal their secrets and frustrations.A running theme throughout the film is that though the townspeople are incredibly close (in some cases, spending their entire lives together), they are often too apathetic or scared to address each other's clearly present problems. Arne has bullied Holmfrid for 35 years. Gabriella's husband (and Daniel's childhood bully) beats her everyday, but no one acknowledges it. The whole town knew about Lena's boyfriend and his adulterous behavior, but no one bothered to tell her. Music allows these characters to break their isolation and overcome these experiences. In one example, Gabriella's empowering solo in which she finally proclaims "my life is only mine," gives her the courage to finally leave her husband.The villagers aren't the only ones who learn how to open up and love themselves–Daniel is affected as well. He begins to take down his self-imposed walls of isolation with the help of Lena. Their relationship is sweet and fairly innocent (though the fact that Daniel was considerably older than Lena was somewhat off putting). Lena aids Daniel in regaining the simple joys of childhood, such as riding a bike ("You're the one always talking about balance!" she teases). "Welcome home," she tells him, when he tearfully reveals that he was raised in the village.The spiritual aspects of As it is in Heaven are not as prominent as the title may lead a viewer to believe. Early on, we listen in on a church service very focused on sin and flawed human nature, but it's a long time before anything overtly Christian is mentioned again. The most interesting insights into spirituality come from the women in the film. The empowering experiences in the choir cause Inger to reveal the secret belief she has harbored for 20 years: sin is an invention of the church that only exists in your head. "God doesn't forgive, don't you get that?" Inger says to her husband, the pastor, "Because He's never condemned." This confession rocks their already unstable marriage, and ultimately causes Inger to leave. The revelation seems somewhat out of place, mostly due to the lack of religion overall in the rest of the film. Its controversial implications are never brought up again outside the scene. There are some obvious (perhaps too obvious) Christian metaphors in the movie–the cross falls when Siv slams the door on the "sinful" choir, and the women tending to Daniel and wrapping him in white cloth after Conny beats him is reminiscent of the women tending to Jesus after the crucifixion.Lena's contribution to the film's spirituality is more typical of her character's behavior. Lena is often portrayed as an angel throughout the film, bringing a vibrant joy to all her interactions. It makes sense when, near the end of the film, she asks Daniel, "Do you believe in angels? If I squint, sometimes I see their wings." Lena helps Daniel see the good in everyone, and instinctively reassures him about his fears of death. "There is no death," she tells him. And she's right. Though the film ends with Daniel's physical death (a predictable and somewhat melodramatic note, compared to the compelling realism present in the rest of the film), he lives on through the music he has created and the community he has built around it.

Laura Hein Kay Pollack's sometimes annoyingly uplifting moralistic film, "As It Is in Heaven", shows the story of a man returning to his hometown marked by his own sad memories of his childhood. Daniel Darius, played by Michael Nyqvist, is an extremely successful and gifted conductor, composer, and musician but is forced to question his career after a serious health scare. Daniel moves back to his hometown and is coerced into listening to a local choir, despite his protests. He eventually concedes to directing and teaching the choir once he discovers an interest in one of the choir members. The influence of religion is heavy and rather obvious in this film. The choir is a church choir that sings religious songs, both in Swedish and English. There are moralistic themes in the storyline such as: believing in oneself, finding ones voice, going on despite the odds, etc. The fact that the main character, Daniel Darius, is shown to have risen from oppression into excellence and to have overcome odds propels him to some sort of Christ figure. If Pollack had intended to make any subtle comparisons or similarities to religion, he failed miserably. In a bit of an interesting contrast, Pollack also highlights violence, specifically violence perpetuated by men who are supposed leaders of their church or family. Conny, played by Per Morberg, is Daniel's childhood bully who has stayed in their hometown and married a woman whom he controls in almost every aspect beats his wife and Daniel when he is displeased. Also, the pastor, Stig played by Niklas Falk, turns to violent actions against his wife Inger, played by Ingela Olsson when she displays questionable actions in his view. It is difficult to understand why Pollack included this violence alongside the more moralistic and holy religious themes especially given the fact that the pastor is involved in this violence. So it almost seems as if Pollack is supporting spirituality and religion but not the hierarchical nature and old rules of the church. Stemming from this strange side by side comparison of religion and violence, the idea of hypocrisy is shown through the entire film. Going back to Stig, the pastor, it is revealed to the viewer that he hides pornographic magazines in his house for his own sexual pleasure, and his wife knows of this but doesn't acknowledge it until a key point in their relationship. So while he claims to be this holy man, he is just as weak to sexual pleasures as any regular person, and instead of acknowledging this, he chooses to hide it and make himself a hypocrite. Towards the beginning of the film, it is shown how Daniel lives and breathes his music, which is the love of his life. Once he moves to his hometown, he initially refuses to help a choir who only wants to live and breathe their own music. It seems that Daniel understood what a hypocritical stance this was and decided to help the choir (it also helped that a beautiful woman was a member in the choir, but I'd rather give Daniel a bit more credit than that). Now as to why I am only giving this film a five out of ten. I do not enjoy films that hit a viewer over the head with the intended theme or moral of the story. This is purely personal preference when it comes down to it, but I'd rather have a very open film that has many interpretations than a very closed one with a very intended result. It may be more approachable to more viewers because of how easy the meaning of the story is to grasp, but I'd like to think that I am not a normal, ignorant film-goer. This just wasn't a sophisticated plot that made me think. Nonetheless, Michael Nyqvist did a wonderful acting as Daniel Darius and his wide range of emotions, but even a good actor cannot save a movie like this one. "As It Is in Heaven" most definitely had an agenda in its storyline, not that that is generally a bad thing, but how Pollack went about doing it made it too redundant for my taste. Although there were some interesting contrasts between religion, violence and hypocrisy, it did not feel as though those contrasts were as developed as they could be to make this film more thought provoking and profound. The film was most definitely intended to be uplifting and "warm fuzzy"-inducing, but rather I felt more annoyed than anything after the film ended.

Roger Burke It's interesting, actually odd I think, to see this movie classified here as Comedy first, then Drama. While there are a few comedic moments – as always in real life – most of this story centers upon the drama surrounding the psycho-social awakening of the central protagonist, Daniel Dareus (Michael Nyqvist), a violin maestro and concert conductor of international standing.The awakening specifically concerns Daniel's search for love, something he's been unable to achieve since his teens, when his mother died tragically as he watched – an episode that occurs in the first series of establishing scenes and voice-over. Hence, from the get-go, we know that Daniel is a fragile and emotionally disturbed genius who really needs help.Humans have a penchant for returning to the past for answers – a typical and often quite sensible approach to unresolved psychological problems, as most know. Daniel is no different: he goes back to his home village where he was cruelly bullied when very young, memories of which still haunt him.There, he buys his old school house: long left abandoned, unused, dilapidated and a metaphor for his own emotional state. Significantly, he begins the process of repairing the building and, tentatively at first, also reaching out to the local people, all of whom are wondering what brought such a famous personage to such a nondescript place that seems to be encased in snow and ice for most of the year. In particular, the local church pastor asks him to help out the local choir.Initially demurring because he's shy of human contact, Daniel eventually agrees after meeting the woman who manages a local post office/convenience store, Lena (Frida Hallgren) and with whom he gradually builds a romantic relationship, a crucial step in his self-rehabilitation. Along that way, moreover, Daniel also gets to know the various members of the choir and, to a large extent, the nature of their own insecurities, fears, troubles and doubts.Hence, there are various sub-plots concerning those choir members, all of whom provide different degrees of support and which assists Daniel with his now obsessive need to create a truly cohesive choir that can sing in absolute tonal harmony. Why? Because, not only is music the first and most basic language of humanity, it is – in Daniel's view – the only way to truly and effectively communicate with another human at a 'spiritual' level.The latter might be a bit of a stretch for some viewers, but it is illustrated in perhaps one of the most original choir recitals you'll ever see – anywhere – when the whole choir travels to a contest in Austria to compete internationally. Only the hardest of hearts within the worst cynics will shrug and walk away from that and Daniel's achievement.There are wonderful touches of irony and pathos when we learn about all the choir members as they, with Daniel's help, discover their new strengths and knowledge about each other. As always, some lose, some win. But, that's life, no? Which raises a fundamental issue: at the end, is Daniel a winner or loser? You can judge when you see this movie. All I can say is that it is fitting, win or lose.The production, from Denmark and Sweden, is top rate. The frozen north is captured beautifully. The acting is simply outstanding with the only familiar face for me being Nyqvist (and I've seen many Danish/Swedish films – but not enough as yet, obviously); the cast, when singing together, looked as though they truly enjoyed their work. And the sound track and singing are just perfect, for me.Nominated for Best Foreign Film for 2005, it lost out to a Spanish entry, The Sea Inside, a true-life biopic that I've seen and liked. From my perspective, however, this one is much better.Give it eight out of ten. Recommended for all.February 27, 2012.