Made in Heaven (1987) - Alan Rudolph

Alan Rudolph's Made in Heaven begins in a small Pennsylvania town, where Mike Shea lives a life he deems insignificant.  Mike wants to go cross country to California with his girlfriend Brenda but she has other plans.  Now alone and heading west, Mike comes across an accident, recusing a woman and her children from a river but dying in the process.   way across country alone, Mike rescues a woman and her children.  Now in Heaven, Mike takes time to adjust to the rules of this world, soon falling in love with Annie.  Things are perfect for Mike until Annie is summoned to her tour of duty on earth, inhabiting a human body.  This leads Mike to make a deal with Emmet, the man in charge of Heaven.  Mike can return to Earth, but neither he nor Annie will remember each other, giving Mike thirty years to find her again.   Alan Rudolph's Made In Heaven is a wholly original love story that celebrates pure, uncompromising love.  Now I realize this description makes the film sound corny but that couldn't be farther from the truth.  Much of the film observes Mike and Annie separately, watching them fail in their current relationships and yearn for that true soul-mate.  These characters are borderline tortured by not fully grasping their place in this world, a feeling that most people feel themselves.  I think Rudlolph's greatest accomplishment is his ability to capture the fragility of humanity, both from a physical and emotional perspective.   The performances all around from Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis are great but the natural chemistry among these two is palatable, further making Made In Heaven a touching and geniune-feeling endeavor.  Alan Rudolph's Made in Heaven is a inventive, original romantic comedy which captures romantic yearning honestly, while touching on the physical and emotional fragility of being human.
8/10

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