Review of Heaven & Earth (1993) by Maggie L — 03 Apr 2007

This movie was not good in any way. The acting was adequate at best. The direction was horrible. The story was unfulfilling because a story of what Viet Nam was like for a farm girl who lived there could have easily been interesting if done well, but it failed miserably.

I would say the focus of this story was the realtionship between Le Ly and her husband Steve, but it took an hour and a half for that to even start, which caused the key points in their relationship to be rushed.

When they first meet Steve just wants to talk to her, but she keeps telling him she doesn't want a boyfriend and he needs to leave. Then, all of a sudden, he's staying the night, and next thing we know they're engaged.

This is essentially what the rest of the movie was like. At one point (spoilers), Le Ly says she wants a divorce, then the scene progresses to Steve threatening to kill her then himself (this was completely out of nowhere).

After a tearful breakdown, she hugs him and they apologize to each other. Cut to the next scene and he is moving out because they're getting divorced. Then when he shows up to take the kids to church, she insists on going with him like she's scared he might try to take them.

While this turned out to be a well-founded worry, there was nothing to suggest he was capable of kidnapping his own kids while sober. This descent to complete madness was not shown at all on the screen.

Then in the final scene, when she returns to Viet Nam, instead of letting the viewer realize that her return to her home symbolizes she has come full circle in her life, we are told that in a contrived speech from her mother.