A small-town father must find the courage and conviction to share his son's extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world.A small-town father must find the courage and conviction to share his son's extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world.A small-town father must find the courage and conviction to share his son's extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world.
- Awards
- 1 win & 5 nominations
Bryan Terrell Clark
- Turce
- (as Bryan Clark)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe Lithuanian painting girl who appears at the beginning and ending of the movie, played by Ursula Clark, is based on the real-life Akiane Kramarik (born in July 9, 1994, in Mount Morris, Illinois), a girl who affirmed to have experienced an NDE and to have met Jesus in heaven. In addition, the painting about Jesus shown in the movie is the real painting made by Kramarik, called Prince of Peace.
- GoofsThe events in the film took place prior to 2004 when the pastors last child was born, so the grave stone for the dead Marine should not have read "Birth 1990 - Death 2009".
- Quotes
[first lines]
Todd Burpo: Is heaven a hope? Or as real as the earth and sky? I once asked my grandfather that question. And he said by the time he knew the answer, it would be too late for him to tell me. The day would come when I asked that question again, staring into the eyes of my son.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of 'Heaven Is For Real' (2014)
- SoundtracksCome Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
Written by Robert Robinson and John Wyeth
Featured review
Not as bad as you think.
"Heaven, hell, the worlds are within us. Man is the great abyss." Henri Frederic Amiel
Heaven Is for Real is the real-life experience of a 4 year-old boy, Colton Burpo (Connor Corum), who had a near death experience that took him to Heaven and back by the time his operation for a ruptured appendix was complete and successful. Adapted from the Reverend Todd Burpo's2010 best seller, the film chronicles Colton's visions of multicolored horses and a handsome Jesus, as well as relatives who have passed on, leaving challenges for a small-town Christian enclave.
With dad Reverend Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) narrating, it could have been a heavily Christian-themed film, yet it has only touches of the fervor you might expect. Rather, if you can get beyond the low-level melodrama of Colton's Nebraska family life, with pastor dad struggling to keep from slipping into financial hell, the film takes a low-key approach when it nudges the audience to belief in the heavenly visit. Make no mistake: it has touches of a televangelism parable. But at that, it's never strident--it happily includes a couple of outright agnostics challenging the reality of the unreal vision to keep it in line with the skepticism many have about extreme Christian claims.
Heaven Is for Real does a credible job showing the intimate relationships of a small heartland town, never more alive than when it tumbles about with questions of faith, the good life, and death. However its depictions of heaven as a light source with winged angels hovering about seems silly.The film's real limitation is not getting away from the small matters of familial life and actually grappling with the epistemological questions the boy's experience induces. No one has the definitive answer about the afterlife, but it sure is fun to argue about it. This film dodges the big debates in favor of small town life: boring!
"He who looks only at heaven may easily break his nose on earth." Czech Proverb
Heaven Is for Real is the real-life experience of a 4 year-old boy, Colton Burpo (Connor Corum), who had a near death experience that took him to Heaven and back by the time his operation for a ruptured appendix was complete and successful. Adapted from the Reverend Todd Burpo's2010 best seller, the film chronicles Colton's visions of multicolored horses and a handsome Jesus, as well as relatives who have passed on, leaving challenges for a small-town Christian enclave.
With dad Reverend Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) narrating, it could have been a heavily Christian-themed film, yet it has only touches of the fervor you might expect. Rather, if you can get beyond the low-level melodrama of Colton's Nebraska family life, with pastor dad struggling to keep from slipping into financial hell, the film takes a low-key approach when it nudges the audience to belief in the heavenly visit. Make no mistake: it has touches of a televangelism parable. But at that, it's never strident--it happily includes a couple of outright agnostics challenging the reality of the unreal vision to keep it in line with the skepticism many have about extreme Christian claims.
Heaven Is for Real does a credible job showing the intimate relationships of a small heartland town, never more alive than when it tumbles about with questions of faith, the good life, and death. However its depictions of heaven as a light source with winged angels hovering about seems silly.The film's real limitation is not getting away from the small matters of familial life and actually grappling with the epistemological questions the boy's experience induces. No one has the definitive answer about the afterlife, but it sure is fun to argue about it. This film dodges the big debates in favor of small town life: boring!
"He who looks only at heaven may easily break his nose on earth." Czech Proverb
helpful•1212
- JohnDeSando
- Apr 20, 2014
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Небеса реальні
- Filming locations
- Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada(location)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $12,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $91,443,253
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $22,522,221
- Apr 20, 2014
- Gross worldwide
- $101,982,712
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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