Heaven Is For Real - Review

Oct 2, 2016
2 min read

Now before I even start, I am not going to preach to you in this review. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life or who to believe in and what came to my surprise, is that this film didn't really do that either. Before the film started playing, multiple trailers for other Christain movies were shown... and all of them looked really bad. All of them had pretty bad acting and they all seemed very preachy. So I was a bit worried going into Heaven is for Real. Turns out, this film brought me to tears. Really, it did. This story isn't really about a boy who went to heaven, saw Jesus, his unborn sister, and his great grandfather, this is a story about a father trying to understand what his son is going through. There is a line in the film where he says something like, "I've been preaching for so many years and I don't even know if I believe it." This story doesn't have little Colton come back from heaven and the whole town erupts in praise and joy and cheer, Colton and his father are faced with skepticism. Everyone from counselors, members of the church and Colton's own mother. That's the reason why I loved this movie. When Todd (Greg Kinnear) is looking through old photos of his grandfather, he gets emotional and questions what does this all mean. I think every human goes through that stage of questioning what comes after this life. Some people say you are reborn while some say you can go to heaven. For a film titled, Heaven is for Real, it doesn't preach to you what is the truth, it simply shows a family man's journey about discovering it. If you are a hardcore atheist who has no doubts in their mind that church is a place for nutjobs, then I would advise against this film. On the other hand, if you are a faithful Christian or anybody that is on the fence on what they want to believe, I say you should see this movie. For me personally, it gave me hope that maybe one day I will see my two grandfathers again. That why I believe this film succeeds. It could start you on the path of your own journey to find something.