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John Groberg really passed through some fantastic experiences
while he was on his nearly three-year mission to the Tongan islands.
Experiences that would honestly be worth reading about in a book.
But it just doesn’t translate to film. At least not the
way it’s done in The Other Side of Heaven.
The Other Side of Heaven is an episodic film that shows
us clips of experiences that John (Christopher Gorham) has on
the islands, bookended by leaving and returning to his wife and
girlfriend, Jean (Anne Hathaway). We get scenes of John trying
to learn the language, getting his feet eaten up by rats, teaching
and baptizing people, saving a kid during a storm, sailing at
sea, etc. What we don’t get is any cohesive story or actual
growth from our main character. Now I don’t mind episodic
stories necessarily. If tied together thematically, they can be
very effective. But nothing is keeping The Other Side of Heaven
together.
The voiceover dialogue that we get between John and Jean as they
write to each other is often pretty silly and the frequent attempts
at humor miss more often than they hit. Perhaps Heaven’s
best attributes are simply all the pretty pictures of the island
and sea that we get. But the filmmakers must realize this is one
of the better aspects of the film because we get a lot of them.
Sometimes for no apparent purpose other than to say, “look
how pretty this is.”
On the other hand, the experiences that John has passed through
truly are remarkable. It’s encouraging to see him pass through
so many difficult experiences without getting down and maintaining
a hope and joy that holds up the whole island. It’s uplifting
to see him in action and making a difference in the lives of the
people. So really, there’s some great material here. If
only the story had been told differently, it could have been really
affecting.
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