Heaven Movie Review

Subtitle: A Ridiculously In-Depth Analysis of the Heaven Movie that Nobody Asked For. But Here It Is. Blame Lifetime.

Up to the point where Heaven is waiting on the front porch with two suitcases takes us up to the 49 minute mark in total including commercials. There are three commercial breaks that are about five minutes long. In terms of actual movie time they devoted a whopping 34 minutes to the first ⅔ of the book. Kitty and Cal are really only in the last ⅓ of the book.
Julie Benz (best known for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Angel” and “Dexter”) was definitely the biggest star Lifetime was able to get for this movie. She was a fan of the books when she was a teenager and that’s most likely why she took the role of Kitty. It certainly wasn’t for the prestige a Lifetime movie was going to add to her resume.

So I can see why they were in a rush to give her as much screen time as possible, but it cuts out a lot of the book early on. After Lifetime’s other adaptations of V.C. Andrews' novels I can’t say I was overly surprised. Lifetime should really add “Loosely Based On” or “Kinda, Sorta, but Not Really” to any of the movie titles for any of her books that they’ve turned into movies.
I do love Julie Benz, though, and I was excited to see her play Kitty. So on with the Kitty and Cal show!
Kitty and Cal pull up to the cabin in a convertible. Kitty’s wearing a brown leather vest dress over top of a cream colored turtleneck, which sounds like an odd combo, but Julie Benz manages to pull it off.

It’s a letdown, though, from the hot pink pantsuit that looked painted on and “emphasized the wide V of her crotch” that Kitty is wearing in the book when she first meets Heaven.
Kitty’s style, as depicted in the books, is more in fashion with the 1980’s when hot pink was really popular. “Heaven” came out in 1985 so V.C. Andrews was probably drawing more from the fashion of her era when she created Kitty’s fashion style. I still missed that hot pink pantsuit, though, and Kitty’s huge mass of auburn hair teased to its fullest extent.

For my love of Julie Benz I was willing to put those missing physical details aside. I knew she’d play the part of Kitty to perfection and that was more important to me than how she looked.
Movie Kitty is all smiles as she goes to give Heaven a hug. Book Kitty didn’t even touch Heaven during their first encounter, which took place inside the cabin with Cal present. She considered everything in the cabin filthy, including Heaven herself.
Movie Kitty tells Heaven that she feels like skin and bone when she hugs her, which just won’t do. She promises to spoil her and tells her, “Steak and cake, that’s the idea? What do you say?” I say that’s not part of a nutritionally balanced meal, but it’s better than foraging for wild mushrooms in the woods I suppose.

Kitty asks where that scoundrel Luke Casteel is, and Heaven tells her he went into Winnerow. Kitty knows what Luke’s favorite pastime is: “To the bar. Don’t I know it? Drink, drink drink.”
He sounds like a real catch, Kitty. Why are you so obsessed with this guy? So infatuated with him that you decide to adopt his daughter so you can torment her as payback against him?

Kitty tells Heaven she’s glad to get her out of that place. She says, “It’s a pretty picture. Me adopting Luke Casteel’s daughter. The daughter I never had.” Heaven gives her an odd look, because it’s a strange and vaguely ominous thing to say.
Kitty mentions that Luke told her Heaven likes school. She affectionately calls him “Lukey,” which is something she never called him in the book.

Heaven is surprised that he acknowledged her existence long enough to know this. Or it was just a generic shot in the dark Luke took to make Heaven sound good that just happened to be true. She likes school, brushes her teeth twice a day and always says her prayers before bed.

Kitty says Luke was happy to hear that the schools in Atlanta are just great. Movie Heaven never gets to find out if this is true or not, because she has too much cleaning and good-looking husband boinking to do.
Kitty remembers the existence of her boy toy husband, who’s just been sitting in the car the whole time staring at them. I guess he wanted to give them some mother-daughter bonding time, but like not even a wave to your newly adopted teenage daughter and future lover, Cal? So rude.
Kitty tells Cal to come meet Heaven and introduces him as her husband and Heaven’s “new Daddy.” Book Kitty never encouraged Heaven to call her husband anything besides Cal. It's also super weird since Heaven is fifteen and Cal is maybe twenty-five. I guess they’re going for a Hot for Daddy angle, which is gross and also not how it happens in the book.

The Heaven and Cal relationship of the book is more of a grooming relationship that takes place over a few years. I could tell from the trailers that they were going to try and romanticize the relationship between Heaven and Cal. Except there’s just no way you can make a guy in his mid-twenties who cheats on his wife with his adopted teenage daughter romantic.
But, boy, do they try! And they almost succeed based on the charm of Chris McNally alone, the actor who plays Cal. Plus several tweaks to the story to make Cal look more like a good guy.

Up Next In Part 8:

Kitty has a new profession and I hate it!

Julie Benz is a goddess that Lifetime doesn't deserve!

I figure out why Book Kitty's ceramics classes were so popular!

Heaven Movie Review - Part 7