A Little Bit of Heaven

Directors: Nicole Kassell
Starring: Kate Hudson, Gael García Bernal, Kathy Bates
Time Out rating:
Japanese title: Watashi Dake no Happy Ending

Heaven’s above. This excruciating film has Kate Hudson as Marley, a bubbly, single New Orleans gal whose carefree approach to life – no-strings sex, good pals, a wicked sense of humour – grinds to a halt when she’s diagnosed with colon cancer, or ‘ass cancer’ as this genial joker has it. Luckily for Marley, one of her doctors is a reserved but handsome Jewish Mexican, Julian Goldstein (Gael García Bernal – what’s happening to his career?), who challenges his patient’s intractable attitudes to life and death by declaring his love for her just as the medical prognosis isn’t looking so good…

While the early scenes of A Little Bit of Heaven come across like a Hollywood Happy-Go-Lucky as independent Marley jovially juggles a fun social life with a rewarding job, the film first enters fantasy land when Marley pops to heaven and has a chat with God (Whoopi Goldberg!) and then plumps for all the solemnity and mawkishness of Love Story as it makes a handbrake turn from kooky to weepy territory. Worst of all, director Nicole Kassell (who made the very different The Woodsman) and first-time writer Gren Wells betray Marley’s heart-on-your-sleeve honesty by giving us a dishonest depiction of sickness and death. A game and endearing Hudson is the best thing about the film, but otherwise it’s a cynical affair only suited to those who like a cheap, forgettable weep.

A Little Bit of Heaven opens nationwide on December 17