There's a rare Wednesday opening at movie theaters today for Easter weekend, and it's a title aimed at the faith-based audience.
"Heaven Is For Real" is based on a true story, and a best-selling book, that tells of Todd Furpo (Greg Kinnear), a Nebraska pastor whose family faces a series of medical and financial crises. The worst is when Todd's four-year-old son Colton (Connor Corum) suffers a ruptured appendix and undergoes a touch-and-go emergency operation. When the boy comes to, he claims he went to heaven and met Jesus a revelation that shakes Todd's faith to the core.
The movie has its faux-spiritual moments lots of bright lights and angelic choral music but it's more effective as an examination of faith and doubt, particularly in the performances by Kinnear and the always-solid Margo Martindale ("August: Osage County") as a troubled parishoner.