Heaven Can Wait (1978)

This is the 1978 version of Heaven Can Wait, although three versions of this story (one of them entitled Here Comes Mr. Jordan) have been nominated for Best Picture. Warren Beatty plays Rams football star Joe Pendleton, who is accidentally killed before he is scheduled to die, thanks to the interference of an overly eager angel. Once he gets to heaven, the situation becomes even worse because his original body has been cremated, so the angels (in the guise of Buck Henry and James Mason) attempt to find him another body to occupy. They choose the body of a millionaire who has just been murdered, and Joe assumes his new identity as Leo Farnsworth.

So overwhelming is his desire to play in the Super Bowl, however, that it isn't long before he's bought his old team and convinced his former coach Max, played with great mugging by Jack Warden, that he's the reincarnation of his old quarterback self. They begin training him for a return to football, despite his being significantly older than a football player should be.

The supporting cast is all top-notch, particularly Dyan Cannon and Charles Grodin as the would-be murderers (the old man's wife and his accountant, respectively). I remember seeing this movie when it was released in theaters--I was 15 years old then--and enjoying it immensely. It was one of the first "grown-up" movies I was taken to see, and I felt like I had been admitted to an exclusive society when I got all of the jokes. Even at that age (which was a younger 15 than it is today), I understood that Cannon's and Grodin's characters were having an affair, and I thus thoroughly enjoyed the scene where Leo bursts into the bedroom (all done up in a single print fabric) and announces that he wants a divorce.

My fondest memories, though, were of Beatty's co-star (and one of his many former lovers): Julie Christie. I don't recall having ever seen anyone as beautiful as she on a movie screen. I was entranced from the moment I saw her. And Beatty, serving as one of the directors, has shot her to be luminous. Each time she appears on the screen, you want Leo (and anyone else) to fall in love with her, to do whatever she asks. Of course, she wants the impossible, really, to have Mr. Farnsworth give up one of his money-making ventures because it endangers a small town she loves back in the U.K. Naturally, she persuades him, much to the surprise of his board of directors. But, honestly, could you deny Julie Christie anything? More than 40 years have passed since she first garnered worldwide attention in Darling, and she continues to dazzle audiences. She managed to take even a tiny part in the movie Troy and make it memorable, and I defy almost anyone not to cry when she is brought to tears near the end of Finding Neverland. She wasn't nominated in 1978 for Best Actress for Heaven Can Wait, but I hope she is on the short list again this year for Away from Her. She remains a marvel, and I'll always treasure Heaven Can Wait for introducing her to me almost 30 years ago.