The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2004) (TV)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Lloyd Kramer

Writers (WGA):

Mitch Albom (book)
Mitch Albom (teleplay)

Release Date:

24 April 2005 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy

Tagline:

All ending are beginnings. We just don't know it at the time...

Plot:

On his 83rd birthday, Eddie (Voight), a war vet and a maintenance worker at the Ruby Pier amusement park...

Plot Keywords:

Heaven | Pier | Amusement Park | Afterlife | Birthday

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 6 nominations

Cast

Jon Voight	...	Edward 'Eddie'
Ellen Burstyn	...	Ruby
Jeff Daniels	...	Blue Man
Dagmara Dominczyk	...	Marguerite
Steven Grayhm	...	Young Eddie
Michael Imperioli	...	Captain
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Eddie's Father
Rebecca Jenkins	...	Eddie's Mother
Callahan Brebner	...	Boy Eddie
Nicaela Weigel	...	Tala
Shelbie Weigel	...	Tala
Darcy Cadman	...	Young Joe
Tim O'Halloran	...	Mickey Shea
Zak Santiago	...	Dominguez
Emy Aneke	...	Willy

Runtime:

180 min (including commercials) | Finland:160 min (2 parts)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Singapore:PG | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California, USA

Company:

Five People Productions Inc.

Trivia:

The newspaper headline in Eddie's apartment reads, "Police Doubt Fire Was Accidental". The same headline appears in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and is where the character gets her name.

Quotes:

Blue Man: Fairness does not govern life and death...If it did, no good man would ever die young...

The best adaptation of a novel I've ever seen.

On my summer reading book list one of the choices was Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet In Heaven. The story sounded interesting and there was a lot of fuss about it, so out of curiosity I decided to read the book and see for myself. The book was a stunning and fascinating piece of drama I have ever read and will always remain one of my favorite books. After finishing the book and hearing there was a movie version of it on DVD I just had to rent it. In all my life, I had never seen a movie more loyal to the book. The dialog was straight from the book, no ab libbing that was close to the story. The description was better than I pictured the images in the book. But the best part was the actors in the movie. I would have never imagined Jon Voight as Eddie Maintenance, that was a smart move. Another part that I would suggest to the people reading this review is the lesson learned in this film. Maybe your life means nothing to you, but you'd be surprised what your life means to others.