Heaven Movie Review - Part 14 (The End)
- Rebecca Gustafson
- Aug 23, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 5, 2019
Subtitle: A Ridiculously In-Depth Analysis of the Heaven Movie that Nobody Asked For. But Here It Is. Blame Lifetime.
Heaven visits her mother’s grave to tell her that she feels like she's disgraced her mother’s memory. She vows not to give up on herself and to go to college.
Heaven goes to see Luke at the cabin after visiting her mother’s grave. He’s drunk and thinks he’s seeing his Angel at first. Heaven commands him get down on his knees. He obeys and asks for his Angel to take him.
He realizes it’s actually Heaven after she tearfully asks, “What kind of man are you?” He presses his hand to the screen door. Heaven meets his hand from the other side as he’s crying and pleading with her to forgive him.
She tells him the only thing Luke can do is to tell her how to find Leigh VanVoreen’s family. She wants to “follow the love that bore me.” Oh, Sweet Willies’ Child, you really do not want to do that. Heaven also says she wants to start a new life. I guess I would, too, far away from the town that thinks I’m nothing but a whore.
Book Heaven doesn’t see Luke again until “Dark Angel.” She just misses him at the hospital, where Kitty was staying after her condition really went downhill. Kitty gives Heaven a letter Luke wrote asking for her forgiveness. He gives her a choice between coming to live with him and his wife and son, or going to Boston.
Book Heaven is still pretty pissed at him for those four times he sold her and her siblings. She opts for Boston instead since wealthy blue blood grandparents hold more potential for her future and education than her abusive father whose suddenly become a Saint.
Movie Heaven is waiting at the bus stop when Tom shows up out of the blue. He survived his horror movie - for now. But just like “Final Destination,” Death eventually has its day.
Heaven reads him a letter from her grandmother that’s signed “Your Grandmother Tatterton, formerly VanVoreen.” Jillian would never sign a letter acknowledging she’s a grandmother.
Cal shows up at the bus stop and is ready to have a pistol duel showdown with Tom, who he thinks is Logan.
Cal begs Heaven to stay with him. He tries to manipulate her by asking, “Don’t you want someone to take care of you? To love you?”
How exactly were you planning on taking care of her when you don’t even have a job, Cal? You’re a writer who mostly had writer’s block until you found a teenage muse to inspire you. Heaven must realize this, too, because she says she has to go to Boston.
Other than Cal’s lack of a job, based on the movie version of their relationship, I was actually rooting for her to stay with Cal. Offering her alcohol was clearly inappropriate, but she wasn’t drunk when she kissed him and had sex with him. She seemed really into it when he lifted her onto that kitchen counter and kissed her passionately. He’s a great jazz dance cleaner. He’s a writer so they’d have a love of books in common.
If he got a job they might actually be able to make things work. Cal is also really, ridiculously good-looking, which may have influenced me rooting for him.
Except the next book says Heaven goes to Boston, so to Boston she must go. Logic and Cal’s pleading, gorgeous brown eyes be damned.
Apparently she’s going to take the long route to Boston by getting on a bus to Santa Cruz? I thought maybe that was even Santa Cruz, California, which is on the opposite side of the country, but apparently there is a place called Santa Cruz Tienda Y Carniceria in Atlanta, Georgia. This makes more sense because the license plate is even for Georgia. When Winnerow is supposed to be in West Virginia. Lifetime sucks at continuity.
Book Heaven does actually go to Atlanta first before she heads to Boston - on an airplane. That makes sense where she’d have to fly to a major airport to get a connecting flight to Boston. It makes no sense for her to board a bus to Georgia in order for her to get to Boston.
My Final Verdict:
Rating as a Lifetime Movie: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I don't usually watch Lifetime movies, but I know they're usually fairly scandalous and cheesy. On both of those marks this movie definitely succeeded. Julie Benz as Kitty also gets them all the stars.
Rating as a Made-for-TV Movie: ⭐⭐⭐
My bottom of the barrel threshold for Made-for-TV movies is the horrible remake of “Dirty Dancing” that ABC did. You will stay permanently in the corner, Evil Remake that Should Not Exist. I’d much rather rewatch “Heaven” than that drivel.
Rating as a Faithful Adaptation of the V.C. Andrews’ Novel: 0.00001% of a ⭐
The names were correct and some events were similar, but otherwise it was more like a very loose adaptation.
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