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HEAVEN IS FOR REAL

"Meeting Jesus Face to Face"

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What You Need To Know:

Based on a bestselling book, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL tells the story of Colton Burpo, a 4-year-old boy who claims he went to Heaven while near death on an operating table. Colton’s parents, Todd and Sonja, are very hard-working people trying to build a church. Todd is a fireman, a repairman, and a pastor, while Sonja care for the children and leads the church worship. Suddenly, Colton gets extremely sick and must go into surgery. After much prayer, he survives but tells his parents he went to Heaven and met Jesus. Should the parents tell the world?

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is an extremely good faith-based movie. It’s one of the most captivating, inspiring movies of this or any other year. The dialogue is wonderful. Greg Kinnear does a superlative job as Todd Burpo. Also, little Connor Colum is amazing as Colton. Randall Wallace does a brilliant job of directing. Best of all, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL shows that God is real, Heaven is real, Jesus is real, and God is love. It challenges everyone to go forth in faith and love.

Content:

(CCC, V, S) Very strong Christian, moral worldview with church scenes, a real portrayal of faith, hymns, worship songs, angels, Jesus appears to a little boy, Bible verses, one very light relativist comment; one light profanity; man breaks his leg sliding into third base during amateur baseball game and is shown, and little girl hits two boys; implied marital sex and innuendo and kissing, but not really salacious; no alcohol use; no smoking or no drug use; and, no other objectionable content

More Detail:

Based on a bestselling book, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL tells the story of a four year-old named Colton who says he goes to Heaven during an operation where he was near death. Wonderfully written by Chris Parker and directed by Randall Wallace, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is one of the most engaging, most inspiring Christian movies ever made. The acting, dialogue, cinematography, and editing are first-class. Best of all, the movie shows the truth of God’s love.

Colton is an adorable 4-year-old with a loving family, including his hard working father, Todd. Todd works as a garage door repair guy, volunteers as a fireman, and is a pastor of a local church in a Nebraskan small town. His wife, Sonja, leads the church’s music department, but the two are barely scrapping by on finances.

When Todd breaks his leg playing softball and has kidney stones, the couple gets in to even more financial debt. Sonja suggests they should take a road trip to relieve the pressure.

When the family returns Colton gets very sick. For days, Colton is sick and his temperature is extremely high. Todd and Sonja take Colton to the emergency room. Doctors have to operate on him immediately because Colton’s appendix has burst. While they operate, Colton’s mother calls their friends asking for immediate prayer. Meanwhile, Colton’s father goes to the hospital chapel, where he angrily rails at God.

Happily, Colton survives the operation, though at one point he was near death. Everything starts to return to normal, until Colton tells Todd that, during his operation, he went to Heaven and met Jesus. At first, Todd is amused by the little boy’s statements. Then, he becomes perplexed and questions whether Colton is telling the truth.

However, some of Colton’s statements have the ring of truth. For example, he knew exactly what his mother and father were doing during his operation. Suddenly, Todd feels that he must share with other people, including his church congregation, Colton’s experience. This causes resentment and concern in the church, and even causes a rift between Todd and Sonja. What will happen next?

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is an extremely well done faith-based movie. Though it’s not absolutely perfect, it’s one of the most captivating, inspiring movies of this or any other year. The dialogue is wonderful. Greg Kinnear does a superlative job as Todd Burpo. Also, little Connor Colum is absolutely amazing as Colton, the boy who went to Heaven.

Randall Wallace (the writer of BRAVEHEART, writer/director of WE WERE SOLDIERS, and the writer/director of SECRETARIAT) does a brilliant job of directing HEAVEN IS FOR REAL. With this movie, he’s clearly become one of the best directors working in Hollywood today. The cinematography in HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is beautiful. The editing is sharp. HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is simply terrific in almost every way.

Of course, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL has a very strong, positive Christian worldview. It honors Jesus Christ while, at the same time, showing that the Christian life won’t always be perfect, that doubt often is part of faith, and that each and every Christian must always grow in love. Thus, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is an honest portrayal of Christian faith and its struggles, with little or no ham-fisted preachiness. In the end, the movie shows that God is real, Heaven is real, Jesus is real, and God is love. As such, it challenges all of us, not just Christians, to go forth in faith and love. Bravo!