The first third so implausible it seemed otherworldly

I started watching this film knowing absolutely nothing about it in advance.

To me, the behavior of the characters (not the actors themselves) was so implausible in the first third of the film, that, coupled with the distinct scenography, cinematography and the dialog so ambiguous as to almost seem cryptic, made me wonder if they were all perhaps in a different reality: either returned from heaven to earth, or in heaven, or arrived from the future, or something along those lines. Maybe they're the ones that have died, and Diana is the one who is alive. The funeral in the opening scene didn't fit into that speculation, but I put my hopes up for some original explanation. I kept thinking, dog on it, this is sooo bad... but the cast is top rate, wtf... please, let it be that it's another nothing-is-what-it-seems genre of film, because that's the only thing that could possibly save this.

By the end of that scene where Ben and Joe sit on a bench up on a hill smoking cigars, I realized that everythig, unfortunately, is what it seems.

I suppose I sound insane or plain stupid with that, but at least I'm not alone in finding the way the characters grieved unnatural. The critic J. Berardinelli: "No one is handling the tragedy in a 'normal' manner".

For me, that was an understatement.

Anyway, offering you some entertainment, here's a list of a few things that reinforced my suspicion caused by the entire implausible behavior (on which behavior I don't need to spend too many words as it is obvious).

- The opening scene has a man walk on the water.
- Unsettling long phone rings throughout the beginning.
- Ambiguous dialogue after one phone call: —No God? —No God.
- Leading to and during the funeral for a daughter and a fiancee, neither the parents nor the boyfriend are crying! Not only that, but the music is cheerful (marimbas are heard in one track; in another, a rock'n'roll singer screems "I wanna take you higher" and whispers "boom shaka la ka boom" while the funeral procession speeds toward its destination like the mafia bosses rushing to a get-together). At this point, I was trying to discern whether I was watching a a mere drama or a comedy with a supernatural slant and black humor.
- At the business meeting in the cafe, Joe says: —Diana decided that we should come back and live.
- Mulcahey, an old man, says: —Joe, we are brothers. I'm younger than you are. I'm a man of your time.
- The bench on a hill scene. The camera takes an extreme low-angle shot, filling most of the screen with blue sky. Perked up on the hill, Ben and Joe look over the entire town. The prime spot angels would choose to converse (I was reminded of Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin). Ben and Joe try to do earthly things - smoke cigars - and both start caughing as they've never smoked cigars.
- Ben turns to Joe and says: —Oh, God, whatever you do, don't tell JoJo.

So there you go. By the end of that scene, I realized that those strong double meanings showed to be noth but an accident. Yeah, well, I prefer to call it bad screenwriting.


no i am db