Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur directs "A Little Trip to Heaven", a noir inspired drama starring Forest Whitaker as Abe Holt, an insurance agent tasked with investigating a mysterious death in small town America.Bizarrely, the film's shot in Iceland but takes place in the United States. This gives the picture an unconventionally hyper-stylised look, with moody skylines, rain drenched locales, and lots of blacks, greys and grubby browns. The interesting-faced Julia Stiles plays a cross between your typical noir femme-fatale and damsel in distress. Whitaker sports an unconvincing Minnesotan accent.The film contains a wonderful opening act – very atmospheric - but quickly falls apart. You can almost pinpoint exactly where it goes off the rails: Whitaker, who plays a lonely, shy, work-obsessed investigator, is approached in a bar by a man-hungry obese woman. Too timid to push her away, he finds himself dancing with her, their lonely, chubby bodies swaying to the sound of a midnight jukebox. Unfortunately Kormakur cuts away from the moment as soon as it starts. The rest of the plot proceeds in a similar manner, Kormakur uninterested in dwelling on more interesting, original moments, or even his central character, and too preoccupied with rushing through his familiar tale.6.9/10 – Worth one viewing.

Even though this movie completely falls apart, it's still an interesting piece of work. There's genuine talent on both sides of the camera, but the story is such a mess that they just can't make it work.Forest Whitaker plays an insurance investigator who goes to a small town investigate a seven figure claim involving a life insurance policy. What he finds is a variety of local eccentrics, a father and son police force that is ineffectual, and an incredibly muddled storyline that goes absolutely nowhere.What's good about it: Great music, well visualized, great cast. It's character driven enough that I can see why Whitaker and Julia Stiles would sign on for it.But the story is too muddled for film. On stage or in the pages of a book these sometimes nonsensical events could possibly be accepted. Film is very unforgiving. A barn is a barn. A clinic is a clinic. We're so rooted in the real world- even though the role of Minnesota is played by Iceland- that the behavior of these people is beyond belief. The protagonist first sees the leading lady while staring through her window in the middle of the night. He has a habit of breaking into houses and clinics- possibly being a cat burglar is one of the requirements for working for an insurance company.Logic flies out the window when Stiles and Renner manipulate a huge truck to crash into their car and they and the car goes flying off a cliff into the ocean and they emerge unscathed.There's potential for a strong film out of this material. It shows the film's makers' dedication to their task by the strong cast they've assembled, including Phyllidia Law in a short but effective scene and Jeremy Renner as Stiles's brother or husband or accomplice or whatever.One thing that was dissatisfying was the fault of The Sundance Channel (I saw this on cable). It was filmed in wide-screen 2:35:1 ratio, but a full screen version was broadcast. So in a critical scene in the third act there's a moment when both characters speaking are out of camera range. That's why I prefer Independent Film Channel, because they're not afraid to letterbox.This is worth watching, but don't let the strong cast get your hopes up too much.

This "independent" movie is set somewhere in the USA, but it is filmed in Iceland. All the crew and the director appear to be Scandinavian. It is about a man who seems to live his life running scams to get insurance money, but this time he runs up against one of the better insurance investigators who tries to minimize payouts.The lead role is played by Forest Whitaker as Abe Holt, who seems very good as the insurance man. When a man insured for $1Million is found dead and burned in a tragic car wreck, Holt is dispatched to see if there is fraud involved. Basically, he tries to find the victim alive. The rat is Jeremy Renner as "Fred", who apparently is married to the sister of the deceased man, and she is the sole beneficiary of the $1Million. But not all is as it seems to be. Julia Stiles is Isold, the sister, and the young son is Thor. Interesting movie, something different from Hollywood blockbusters.SPOILERS: The man Fred who appears to be Isold's husband is really the man supposed to be dead, Isold's crooked brother, who found a drifter to kill in the wreck. Holt figures this out, a key piece of information is finding the real "Fred" was already dead. Holt arranges the policy so that Isold will get $1Million, but when he tried to get the brother to justice, both end up dying in yet another car crash.

I really love Icelandic cinema and all those stories which have an inherent ancient Nordic mysticism or spiritualism about them. I knew nothing about this film prior to viewing it at the Melbourne Film Festival except that it was Icelandic. Having visited there and been totally captured by the stark beauty of the country I was really looking forward to anything that was served up.However I was really disappointed when I found it was for all intents and purposes an American film shot in Iceland. I'm a fan of Forest Whittaker but in this film he is totally miscast. And what was he trying to achieve with the inconsistent accent? He stood out too much and just did not fit the character of an insurance investigator. Julia Stiles character was half way to trailer trash and frankly, she just looked too good throughout. Perfect complexion, glowing skin color, simply too healthy - it didn't fit the role. The ending was also way too manufactured so as to keep commercial audiences happy. She's a single mother with a "son" who needs money to survive - let's make sure she gets it even if we have to totally change the lead character's actions to ensure it happens.One thing I will say in its favor is that the car crash stunt towards the end of the film is absolutely fantastic - that really came from nowhere. Very impressed with the genuine level of danger involved - it looked very hairy to perform.However overall, a disappointing storyline with few engaging characters and a poorly cast lead sinks this film for me.