A Little Bit of Heaven

This film is about a young career woman who has to re-prioritise her life after finding out she has cancer.

I was hoping "A Little Bit of Heaven" would mix romantic comedy with some tear jerking drama about coping with cancer, but the film shows almost only romantic comedy. Kate Hudson acts well but her role as a woman battling with terminal cancer is so unconvincing. She even has ALL her hair even after her chemotherapy! It so irresponsible that her character blatantly disregards treatment just to get some love from her doctor. The tone of the film is just wrong, it does not acknowledge the suffering of cancer patients and the loved ones around. I find "A Little Bit of Heaven" an unrealistic portrayal of the life of a terminal cancer patient, minimising and invalidating the physical and psychological issues they face.

If "A Little Bit of Heaven" drops the cancer subplot, and just states that Marley has a serious illness that changes her attitude towards life, it would have been less offensive to cancer patients and survivors.

Was this movie formulaic and cliché? Yes. Was it laughable and cringeworthy? Also yes. Was it a heartwarming tearjerker? Definitely. I cried a lot. I love Kate Hudson, she reminds me of my sister who I miss. Her romantic interest and her friends are fantastic too. I actually really liked this movie, despite some silly parts. Perhaps it caught me at a good time but I will remember it fondly. I found especially striking its depiction of grief, and how differently ppl can experience it. The most memorable part, to me, was her father begging her "Tell me what to do, Marley." 😭 And her last, one-sided conversation with her pregnant friend...

In genre it also says "comedy"... well don't fall for that. It is very very dramatic. Like drama-wise; it's much more 'philadelphia' than 'the bucket list' and it should have been more like the second one. It's dark and the jokes or the dancing in the end doesn't make it any more bearable. Kate Hudson and Gael Garcia Bernal are not so bad but the thing is even though Hudson's character is dying, you wait for her to start making a list like how to loose a guy when you're dying because how is her acting here any different than that movie? Bernal is different however romance genre is not a very good fit to him yet, for me his acting is too stable.

I don't say the movie is bad, but it doesn't match to its poster, its colors, its actors... in the end: when this movie ends you feel you have been cheated. Because a movie is a whole with all its elements together (music, cinematography, casting, writing, etc.) and with the first look, you feel like you are going to eat a salad, and when you finished; nope! you just ate whole big mac with extra cheese.. that's just not you ordered! And believe me, once you ate it, you don't feel any good.

Marley Corbett (Kate Hudson) is a strictly-single ad executive in New Orleans. She avoids any real commitments with her hookups. Her best friends are co-worker Sarah Walker (Lucy Punch), pregnant Renee Blair (Rosemarie DeWitt) and gay neighbor Peter Cooper (Romany Malco). She feels sick and goes to see Dr. Julian Goldstein (Gael García Bernal). While under, she sees God (Whoopi Goldberg) who gives her three wishes. She wishes to fly, $1 million and something for later. She has late stage colon cancer. Her parents Beverly (Kathy Bates) and Jack (Treat Williams) can't stop fighting even with their daughter sick. She wins a radio contest to learn hang gliding. Dr. Sanders (Alan Dale) tells her that chemo isn't working and she goes on a medical trial. She finally tells her boss Rob Randolf (Steven Weber) and he tells her about a million dollar payout from the life insurance. Peter sets her up with gigolo escort Vinnie (Peter Dinklage) nicknamed Little Bit of Heaven.

Is it really a bad thing to cross a cutesy rom-com with cancer? The critics seem to think so. I don't judge it like that. This is by no means perfect. Whoopi Goldberg as God is distracting as hell. Gael García Bernal is not fully committed to being a bad English speaker. He should really throw in a lot of Spanish. Kate Hudson is at home with these silly rom-coms. Her flightiness is more of a defense mechanism so I don't really take it as cutesy. The cancer stuff allows the movie to transition to heartfelt seriousness although it's very jarring sometimes. The tone is a tricky thing in this movie and it does struggle. However I don't mind treating cancer with a lighter tone.

Okay, I'm a male and a cancer survivor. This looked like an interesting movie, albeit a "chick flick," but once I started watching I got completely hooked. Yes, the subject of cancer is again given the Hollywood-style treatment (no makeup, just a sallow look, and A FULL HEAD OF HAIR! Guess the filmmakers thought a bald actress wouldn't look so good in love scenes; also, I wish I had experienced the minor discomfort she does during chemo treatments, not to mention how energetic our heroine is when most of us feel like we're lucky to be able to just stand up). But all that aside, it was a beautiful movie message-wise, and after only seeing Kate Hudson in her first role many years ago in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" (and not being that impressed by her), she has certainly matured as an actress. There were two or three scenes that really hit home to me and I could understand exactly what she was feeling at the time. I don't remember seeing this opening in theaters here in San Francisco, and if it did, it didn't play very long, which is a shame; I hope this isn't another film that's gone direct to video. "A Little Bit of Heaven" is about tying up loose ends, little by little, and realizing, finally, that life is a gift and to be celebrated in the short time we're all here. Don't deny yourself the chance to see this movie.