Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Directed by Warren Beatty & Buck Henry. Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Jack Warden, James Mason, Buck Henry, Charles Grodin, Dyan Cannon, Joseph Maher, Vincent Gardenia, Hamilton Camp, Arthur Malet, Keene Curtis. [PG]

Here Comes Mr. Jordan remake changes the protagonist’s profession from boxer to quarterback, still bumps him off before his time. Once the powers-that-be realize the error, they put his soul into the body of another schmuck on his way out—a wealthy industrialist named Leo Farnsworth. Beatty, who stars, produces, co-directs, and co-writes (with Elaine May), forgoes most of the “heavy” implications of its life-and-death-and-afterlife-and-afterdeath scenarios for a gentle, innocent comedy of circumstance, swerving through its compartments of business ethics, sports fantasy, murder mockery, pie-in-the-sky romance, etc., each one dropped for long passages once it’s time to move on. Mason’s solemnity balances well with Henry’s uptight embarrassment of imprecision as the otherworldly figures; Grodin and Cannon score laughs every time they show up. Main issue in casting, surprisingly, are Christie and Beatty himself—the former was always the sober spoilsport for flippant confections, the latter too low-key and droopy for someone in his stressful situation (playing a driven star athlete, to boot), and they do anything but sparkle together in their third screen pairing. Undeserving of the level of praise it earned at the time of its release (nine Oscar nods, including a win for its art direction), but still a worthwhile, easy-going success. Remade again as Down to You with Chris Rock.

70/100