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Good movies you haven’t seen, pt. II
Can our desires be so powerful that they take human form?
Heaven on Earth is about a young Indian woman named Chand who travels to Canada to marry an Indian man. All is well for a bit until he becomes abusive on their honeymoon. Still yet, the young bride Chand wants to be a good wife and makes various attempts at making her new husband Rocky fall in love with her. All of a sudden a nicer Rocky appears who is tender and loving, but later changes into a violent man. Are there two Rockys? Which man is her true husband? Or is Chand just crazy?
I’m sort of teasing you with this film as it has not been released in the US just yet. It premiered to great acclaim at the Toronto Film Festival this year, and I saw it at what was technically the US premiere on campus last week as the dean of my film school is good friends with the writer-director Deepa Mehta. I have no idea when a this film will be released in theatres if at all, but in the meantime check out Deepa’s last academy award nominated film Water.
Let me say here and now that while this is one of my favorite movies, you probably won’t like it unless you like “urban films” (which is PC code for black and latino cinema.) There’s not a lot going on in the plot, but rather the film focuses on the characters, the eldest son of a Dominican immigrant family named Victor in particular.
Victor Vargas is a typical teenage boy in that he chases girls, curses a lot, and plays basketball with his friends. The entire plot revolves around him trying to date Judy, the prettiest girl in the neighborhood to salvage his reputation as there is a rumor going around that he was messing with another girl nicknamed Fat Donna. Underneath all of this though is a boy with a lot of responsibility and pressure who is being raised by his elderly grandmother along with his brother and sister. As the Vargas family is Dominican there are some pretty funny scenes involving the Church and spirituality, including Grandma making all of the kids go to Confession. The film has strong language and one sensual scene, so put the kids to bed first before you watch it.
Pax Christi, Rebecca.
