A Little Trip to Heaven

By Ed Hulse -- Video Business, 1/29/2007

FIRST LOOK
Street: March 13, Prebook: Feb. 6
> Perfectly timed to capitalize on buzz surrounding Whitaker.

A bleak-looking, motivationally murky thriller with flashes of mordant humor, Little Trip to Heaven bears a thematic and stylistic resemblance to the Coen brothers'Fargo but isn't nearly as good. Insurance investigator Abe Holt (Forest Whitaker) is dispatched to the scene of a car accident that seems to have claimed the life of a convicted con man. When Holt questions the victim's sister (Julia Stiles), he can tell she's hiding something. Largely shot on desolate locations in Iceland, Trip abounds in plot twists—some predictable, some not—and has a measured pace that nearly proves its undoing.

Shelf Talk: This oddball thriller will benefit from interest in Whitaker following his much-deserved Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

Thriller, color, NR (mature themes, language, violence), 87 min., DVD $24.98
Extras: none
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
First Run: DVD premiere

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