As It Is In Heaven
Director: Kay Pollak
Now Screening
Rated: M



In 'As It Is In Heaven' successful but burnt-out conductor Daniel DarŽus (Michael Nyqvist) returns to his home village in the north of Sweden in order to allow his heart and mind some necessary respite. But despite the natural calm of the place, its human inhabitants and their artificial wares prove yet another source of frazzling drama, albeit the uplifting kind.

Aware of his standing, they quickly rope him in as leader of the church choir, a role he half-willingly accepts but soon grows into. Several interests, like antagonistic Priest Stig (Niklas Falk) and the violent Conny (Per Morberg), and problems, like the choir's untrained voices, provide obstacles for Daniel. Having in the first place gone there to escape complication and tension he is not so determined about working through such issues, but his hearty choir and love interest Lena (Frida Hallgren) prove excellent support, at least apart from when they are the source of the conflict.

There is a constant flow of drama from just about every source imaginable, but each fuss is promptly extinguished by an even stronger and brighter flow of hope and understanding. Surprisingly, though, the film is not simply a trivial smile-fest. Some of the issues contained in the drama, like suppressed sexuality and domestic violence, are quite serious and add affecting force to the film's substantial sentiment. Daniel's personal problems with loneliness and frailty are well-tested and shaped in this widespread turbulence. In the company of all this the film's reserved humour becomes more appreciable, sensible, and funny.

Visually, the film is inspired. There is much emphasis on season and seasonal change, augmented by characters' varying, notable reactions to the weather. The white winter light of the film's first half seems trapped in rigid compartments of space, but as the ice and snow thaw into spring so the light melts from its partitions and flows with ease through and over the exquisite landscape, warming hearts as it goes.

Nyqvist, with his particularly delicate performance, is the highlight of the cast, but his work could not stand without the rest's consistently sensitive efforts. Together with the laughs and the images, they render 'As It Is In Heaven' a wholly enjoyable, amusing, and warming experience.

William McGinley