Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
After their young son, Colton, undergoes emergency surgery, small-town parents Todd and Sonja Burpo are overjoyed at the child's miraculous recovery. However, the Burpos are unprepared for what happens next... Colton says that during his surgery he went to heaven and back, and tells his parents things that he couldn't possibly know. Can Todd find the courage and conviction to share his son's extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world?
Heaven Is for Real is a faith-based drama that plays it safe and earnestly. The plot follows a familiar inspirational-story arc with modest dramatic tension around the father's crisis of faith and public reception of his son's claims. Acting is competent, with Greg Kinnear bringing some nuance to the lead role, but nothing exceptional. Cinematography is workmanlike small-town Americana with no distinctive visual ambition. Novelty is low — the near-death experience and faith-restored narrative is well-trodden territory handled in a fairly conventional way. The ending resolves predictably and comfortably for its target audience without much surprise or depth.