Heaven Can Wait (1978): A Review (Review #2225)

HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1978)

The gridiron meets the Great Beyond in Heaven Can Wait. This first remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan updates the original story. It should also not be confused with a 1943 film of the same name that is a completely different story. Mostly solid performances and an engaging story lift this divine comedy to worthwhile watching. 

Los Angeles Rams backup quarterback Joe Pendleton (writer/codirector Warren Beatty) is on the cusp of taking the top job. He is fit. He is in top form. He connects his passes flawless. He is also dead. His overly eager and inexperienced Escort (codirector Buck Henry) scooped Joe up a bit too early when Joe was hit by oncoming traffic in a tunnel. Joe was scheduled to die on March 20, 2025. Joe, firmly unbelieving that he is dead, is adamant that he nonetheless be returned to his body. Unfortunately, Joe Pendleton was cremated.

This requires that heavenly host Mr. Jordan (James Mason) take up this situation personally. It is surprisingly hard to find a good body to take. Eventually albeit reluctantly, Joe takes on the form of billionaire industrialist Leo Farnsworth. Leo's wife Julia (Dyan Cannon) and his secretary Tony Abbott (Charles Grodin) have just murdered Farnsworth in the bathtub. Julia and Tony, who is her lover, know that Farnsworth drowned, but no one else does. Among those unaware is Betty Logan (Julie Christie), who has come all the way from Britain to make a personal plea to Farnsworth to stop him from building a factory in a small Welsh town.

Owing to a mix of outrage at Farnsworth's murder and the sight of the beautiful Betty, Joe finally agrees to take on Farnsworth's body. Julia literally screams when she sees Leo back from the dead. The household staff are puzzled at how Farnsworth changes in personality. He no longer has an interest in his extensive wardrobe and hats. He also has a mania for football. He also has a growing mania for Betty, who slowly falls for him too.

Not falling are Julia and Tony. They are determined to ice Leo/Joe, especially after Leo/Joe makes clear that he knows they are schtupping and asks for a divorce. Leo now goes the extra mile to get back into football. He literally buys the Los Angeles Rams and decides to be the quarterback. This draws the contempt of the Rams players and exasperation of the Rams coaching staff. One person who does come around to supporting Leo is Max Corkle (Jack Warden). Corkle is the Rams trainer, who eventually is convinced by Leo that he is really Joe. Despite everyone's initial misgivings, Leo proves himself adept at throwing touchdowns.

However, Mr. Jordan pops back and tells Joe that Leo will not be leading the Rams to the Super Bowl. Keeping to their original agreement, Joe's time as Leo is up. Joe essentially asks for an extension, especially since he has fallen in love with Betty. Tony's mastery of the rifle, however, takes care of any extension. Mr. Jordan does have Joe come back to the Rams in a roundabout way. However, will Joe's third form hold up the Lombardi Trophy? Will Detective Krim (Vincent Gardenia) solve Leo Farnsworth's disappearance? Will Max manage to reunite with the right quarterback? Will Betty find a new man who is really the old man?

I think that there is a perception that Warren Beatty struggles with comedy. If Ishtar is the example of Beatty's comedic skills, that perception is very much warranted. Having said that, I think that Ishtar, for all its awfulness, did show that Beatty had a very narrow way of making comedy work for him. The way he could do that was by not being broad. In Ishtar, he could at least make the dimwitted, almost innocent character work by playing him as perpetually naive. In Heaven Can Wait, I would not say that Beatty plays Joe Pendleton as naive or innocent. Rather, he plays Joe/Leo as unaware. Throughout the film, Beatty plays Joe as a man who never fully realized or accepted that everyone around him saw him as Leo Farnsworth. 

Beatty in his performance brought a great sense of charm and eagerness. Joe/Leo/Tom Jarrett was always earnest and guileless. There is when he uses an Exo-Grey Industries board meeting to compare it to a football team. He has already shocked the board members by inviting the press to attend. As Joe/Leo continues, he sees the big picture, which I would call "positive capitalism". Rather than upend a whole community to build a polluting waste site, why not build something that would provide jobs at that community that would be cleaner. He is not opposed to building power plants. He just wants them built where it would be safe to build them. Warren Beatty brings a great enthusiasm in his performance, making Joe/Leo extremely likeable.

Beatty even manages to have a nice bit of droll comedy when he twice enters Julia's bedchamber. Tony continuously runs behind the curtain in an effort to hide. After Joe/Leo tells Julia what he needs to tell her, he then addresses Tony and gives him instructions. Tony, weak-willed as ever, meekly responds to the affirmative. This sequence is never overdone, making it amusing if not hilarious.

Most of the cast similarly keeps to this dry sense of humor. Julie Christie is blessed with being a very beautiful woman, which adds to her humor of the somewhat perplexed but enchanted Betty Logan. She is quiet in her forceful manner early on. As Heaven Can Wait continues, though, Christie brings a charm to the woman who has fallen in love with the billionaire. Once Leo Farnsworth disappears, we see Betty's genuine sadness at the thought of losing him forever. Heaven Can Wait does give her a nice moment at the end when she appears to see that the man she fell for does reenter her life, albeit in a different form.

Charles Grodin was a master at being overtly sleazy in a humorous way. He was campy and exaggerated in Heaven Can Wait. However, that is not a negative. Tony Abbott was meant to be campy and exaggerated in his machinations and total unethical manner. I think that he was better in the comedy than Jack Warden, who received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for the film. Warden was good as Max, the initially befuddled trainer who eventually accepts Leo as Joe. He has some wonderful individual moments of physical comedy and genuine affection. However, he seemed absent for long stretches, which lessen his impact.

James Mason was the epitome of elegance as Mr. Jordan, who is never flustered or flummoxed by anything going on. He might show mild irritation at the Escort's incompetence and Joe's perpetual rejection of endless potential bodies. However, it is so slight that one figures Mr. Jordan it totally unflappable. Buck Henry has limited screentime and was fine as the Escort. 

I was surprised, after watching Heaven Can Wait, that Dyan Cannon received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her performance. It is not that Cannon gave a bad performance. To be fair, I did find it the one performance that I would say was unnecessarily broad and exaggerated. Unlike Grodin, who made his broad manner work for the character, Cannon's broadness came across as too broad, as if she were overacting. She did scream a lot, which was humorous. For the most part, Cannon worked almost exclusively with Grodin. I think that hampered her performance as she was maybe trying to match Grodin's exaggerated manner and didn't quite match up. 

Beatty and Elaine May, who cowrote the screenplay, kept things flowing well and had nice moments. One of them, interestingly enough, was with Dyan Cannon. "I don't frighten anyone", Joe/Leo tells Mr. Jordan. He then immediately pops into Julia's view, who immediately screams in fright at the sight of the man she thought dead very much alive. 

Overall, Heaven Can Wait is a nice solid romantic comedy. It is, perhaps now, a product of the late 1970s in the same way that Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a product of the 1940s. In the end, I think people will enjoy the film and should seek out this little slice of heaven.

DECISION: B+