As it is in Heaven sets out to tell a hopeful story of redemption through a world famous conductor who proves that you can go home again. In this Oscar-nominated Swedish film by director Kay Pollack, home is a remote village in the country’s snowy north. Abused by the town bully at age seven, he moved away for good—or so he thought. After collapsing onstage from a heart attack, and already suffering from burnout, he decides—for reasons unclear—to cancel all engagements and return to the town that rejected him as a child.
Michael Nyquist makes a good genius conductor, with mad starring eyes and wild intense hair, but is such an awkward creature out of its range in small town Sweden that it’s hard to credit his embrace by most of the locals, especially the church choir that hires him as their director, and the elfin blond shop girl whose fetching smile promises the budding of a romantic subplot.
For drama’s sake, there have to be a few bad eggs. The town bully has grown into the town’s wife beater; he’s also heavily armed and convinced that the maestro is after his wife. And then there is the twisted, hypocritical Lutheran pastor, who fears his central role in the community is being usurped.
The moral of the story, that almost anyone can see the light if they are loved and their spark of creativity encouraged, is worthy but plays out too much according to expectations. If life only arranged itself on such a neat dramatic arc! As it is in Heaven is out on DVD.
