A Little Bit of Heaven (**3/4)

It’s a funny thing that there’ve been two comedies about getting cancer in the last year. This one, set in New Orleans (but with a too-generic soundtrack), is even a romantic comedy, since Kate Hudson’s character, Marley, falls for her doctor (Gael Garcia Bernal) even as he tries to save her. No, it’s not as sappy as it could have been, and Hudson is bubbly and likeable even as she continues to make her role in the classic Almost Famous seem a fluke. But certainly a comparison with 50/50, last year’s cancer comedy, leaves this a bit wanting.

While movies based on true stories are certainly not always better, in the case of 50/50 the characters and situations had such specificity to them that it was no surprise to find out its screenwriter actually lived much of it. In this case, the supporting characters are given a trait or two but function more as a prop for the main character. Her mom’s (Kathy Bates) trait is not letting Marley be independent; her dad’s is being distant (literally and figuratively). The doctor character’s trait is that he can’t tell a joke. Also, he’s Jewish and Mexican — Julian Goldstein. (Had the movie been told from his point of view, it could have been called Marley and Me.) Marley apparently falls for him because in the beginning of the movie she’s telling us, in voiceover, how she isn’t interested in a long-term relationship, so you know what that means. (Is it cliché or contemporary if a woman plays the part of the reforming philanderer?)

First-timer Gren Wells also includes the sort of medical scenes you could have assumed, a barf here or there, making sure that Hudson gets to keep her hair, although she bravely eschews make-up (or wears very little) in several scenes. The director, Nicole Kassell, previously made the challenging The Woodsman; it’s hard to imagine the same person directing a movie in which Whoopi Goldberg has a goofy cameo as God, or, technically, God as imagined by one cancer patient, or maybe just a vivid dream. I wouldn’t say that the comedy, romance, and cancer clash, but they don’t always mesh either. Given the plot, the movie tries too hard to be sweet, on balance, especially the ending. But the pace is good and some of the dramatic/emotional moments work (probably more than the comedy or romance), so…average.

IMDb link

viewed 5/3/12 7:30 pm at Ritz East [PFS screening] and reviewed 5/7/12