This gently retro story of a young Morman missionary in the Pacific Islands of Tonga loses some wholesomeness points due to some smug insularity.
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04/12/02
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The Other Side of Heaven (2002)
27
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:41
Fresh:11
Rotten:30
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: The Other Side of Heaven preaches to the converted; others will likely consider it simplistic, even offensive, propaganda.
Theatrical Release:Apr 12, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $4,381,772
Synopsis: Based on Elder John Groberg's memoirs, THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN, Mitch Davis' feature debut stars Christopher Gorham (A LIFE LESS ORDINARY) as John Groberg, a 19-year-old missionary who goes to... [More]
Starring: Christopher Gorham, Anne Hathaway, Joe Folau, Nathaniel Lees
Director: Mitch Davis
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Reviews for The Other Side of Heaven
Your stomach for Heaven depends largely on your appetite for canned corn.
04/12/02
Top CriticDaily struggles and simple pleasures usurp the preaching message so that, by the time the credits roll across the pat ending, a warm, fuzzy feeling prevails.
04/12/02
As exciting as all this exoticism might sound to the typical Pax viewer, the rest of us will be lulled into a coma.
04/12/02
Handsome and sincere but slightly awkward in its combination of entertainment and evangelical boosterism.
04/12/02
Top CriticThe film's implicit premise is that the faith of the Tonga people is in every way inferior to that of John.
04/12/02
Obstacles are too easily overcome and there isn't much in the way of character development in the script.
04/12/02
Top CriticIf the idea of the white man arriving on foreign shores to show wary natives the true light is abhorrent to you, the simplistic Heaven will quite likely be more like hell.
04/12/02
By no means a great movie, but it is a refreshingly forthright one.
04/12/02
Fails to offer skeptics a way into the worldview of these characters other than a tacit acceptance of its 'truth.'
04/12/02
[Davis] wants to cause his audience an epiphany, yet he refuses to give us real situations and characters.
04/12/02
The central story lacks punch.
04/12/02
Top CriticThe movie's vision of a white American zealously spreading a Puritanical brand of Christianity to South Seas islanders is one only a true believer could relish.
04/12/02
Top CriticThis long and relentlessly saccharine film is a clear case of preaching to the converted.
04/11/02
There's a disturbing 'Great White Hope' undertone to The Other Side of Heaven that subtly undermines its message of Christian love and compassion.
04/11/02
It is inspirational in characterizing how people from such diverse cultures share the same human and spiritual needs.
04/11/02
Top CriticSo relentlessly wholesome it made me want to swipe something.
04/11/02
Like one very long, haltingly delivered sermon...the picture's strenuous efforts to convey an uplifting message collapse in a sea of amateurishness.
04/11/02
Insufferably naive.
04/10/02
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