Does love really conquer all? It certainly seems so in "Heaven," a new film directed by Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run," "The Princess & The Warrior") from a screenplay written by late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski ("Red," "White," "Blue") and Krzysztof Piesiewicz ("The Double Life of Veronique"), meant to be the first in a trilogy.
English teacher Philippa (Cate Blanchett, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings") carefully assembles a bomb and places it in the trash can of an office in a tower in Turin, Italy, hoping, it turns out, to take down an untouchable drug dealer who is ruining the lives of her students and sold the drugs that killed her husband.
After writing letters and calling the police about this man without result, Philippa has taken things into her own hands. But she's not in control as she soon discovers when her plan goes awry.
Making no attempt to hide and even giving her real name when she calls the police to alert them to the bomb, Philippa is apprehended at home and quickly learns about corruption as the police erase any record of her phone calls and letters. Soon they begin to realize that they'd be better off if something happened to her."
But, in the meantime, Filippo (same name, different gender, you'll notice), played by American actor Giovanni Ribisi ("Saving Private Ryan," TV's "Friends"), a policeman who is also the son of a high-ranking police official, falls in love with his namesake. He's translating during her interrogations and is smitten. He hatches a plan for her escape and they're off.
We never get a good feel for how or why he falls in love with Philippa and we certainly don't understand how he could upend his life so profoundly for a confessed murderer. Perhaps he sees the underlying frustration and good intentions behind Philippa's heinous acts. But, fall in love he does. He helps her get away and in the meantime, she falls in love with him, despite the fact that she's lost faith in humanity and she lacks the will to go on.
{INSERT_RELATED}The reason we don't question this too much during the film is that both Blanchett and Ribisi turn in powerful performances. Introspective, pensive and often ambiguous, we don't always fully understand what these characters are thinking, but we sense their drive, their passion.
"Heaven" opens Fri., Nov. 29 at Landmark's Downer Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
