V.C. Andrews' Heaven (2019) - Film Review

In terms of a V.C. Andrews story, Heaven was one I was excited to see on screen. With Paul Shapiro as director and Scarlett Lacey as screenwriter, the first film in the Casteel series centres on Heaven Leigh Casteel, gifted and intelligent, the eldest of five dirt-poor children struggling to survive in a mountain shack. As she endures neglect and abuse, Heaven discovers a dark secret that changes everything she thought she knew about her family. Then tragedy tears her world apart and she must forge her own way in the cruel, unknown world.

In truth, I was apprehensive of Scarlett Lacey reprising her screenwriting role after “My Sweet Audrina” - despite liking her previous writing work, “Audrina” was probably one of the weakest and most disjointed in terms of narrative and character development. However, “Heaven” keeps the essence of most of the characters in tact, the plot points felt a bit rushed and I would've liked to see the aftermath of key moments before moving onto the next dramatic point. There was also a nice development that I actually liked which explains why the townspeople despised the Casteel family so much, which made a lot more sense than just their poor background being frowned upon - I had mixed feelings about the ending and how certain characters were written/portrayed throughout, which I shall get into later. Paul Shapiro’s directing was actually really good as well, the contrast in Heaven’s poor upbringing and her adoptive family’s home were filmed well visually, with decent cinematography.

Annalise Basso takes on the titular role and protagonist. Although not having her character’s signature black hair from the novels, her acting more than makes up for it - she definitely shone more in Heaven’s quieter emotional moments where I believed her performance more. I am very interested to see how her performance will change as she plays Heaven in later years in “Dark Angel” and “Fallen Hearts”. Basso portrayed her character’s shift from innocent to more self-aware rather well in this film.

Chris McNally as Cal Dennis, Heaven’s adoptive father and later lover I had the most mixed feelings on. In the book, it was made abundantly clear that Heaven was being abused by her new family - physically, emotionally and in Cal’s case sexually. However in the film, Cal doesn’t groom her and Heaven is not only of legal age, but nothing happens until she wants it and their consensual relationship shows more of a sexual awakening narrative instead. In terms of acting, McNally was great and he had natural chemistry with Basso, but the tone of their relationship is drastically different from the book - one scene in particular shifted in tone so much between the characters, it was slightly disconcerting. Although I haven’t seen “Dark Angel” yet, I feel that McNally would’ve made a perfect casting for Troy Tatterton.

Julie Benz’s portrayal of Kitty Dennison was definitely interesting, she got Kitty’s many mood swings and jealous traits nailed pretty well. It was also good that it was foreshadowed a bit more what was going on with her, although slightly obvious at times compared to the book. I think Benz did well with this role, but it would’ve been nice to see her push the character further.

Jessica Clement as Heaven’s younger sister Fanny was without a doubt, one of the best castings - she was excellent and definitely deserved more screen time. I also think it was good that Clement’s character had a lot more complexity - as with other VC Andrews female characters, it would’ve been very easy to paint her as a little Lolita, but this showed Fanny had a toughness and vulnerability (which was hinted at in the book) which Clement played beautifully and I’m certain she’ll do the darker development of Fanny justice.

Chris William Martin as Luke, the depressed and alcoholic father who mourns his lost love was portrayed pretty well. Often the male characters, particularly the fathers or love interests are portrayed as visually flawless in the VC Andrews novels, but Martin’s character was not portrayed through that lens and we got to see him delve into Luke’s unhealthy obsession with Leigh. One particular scene which showed the level of his performance was with Basso and a scene was taking a sinister turn, but so much was portrayed visually in their performance as Luke went from dangerous to coming to his senses and instantly regretting it. Which is why their final scene was such a let-down as both actors clearly had the talent, but the dialogue didn’t match with the complexity of this very flawed and antagonistic father/daughter relationship.

Other actors that did terrific in smaller roles were Samantha Coughlan as Luke’s second wife Sarah and mother to nearly all of his children - she captured the despair and frustration of her character quite convincingly and in such a short space of time. Christina Jastrzembska who played Annie Casteel, Heaven’s grandmother was superb in the role and gave actually quite moving performances. Ingrid Tesch as Grace, Kitty’s mother was exceptionally well cast - I actually think she would be great as a young Olivia Foxworth in a “Garden of Shadows” adaptation. Todd Thomson’s portrayal of Reverend Wayland Wise was good in terms he captured the sinister side of his character fairly well. Christian Convery and Madeline Hirvonen as the youngest Casteel siblings Keith and Jane did well as their characters, which is a shame that it looks like their characters won’t appear in future films.

However, there are some actors that unfortunately weren’t on the same level as others or sadly not good in terms of writing. Matthew Nelson-Mahood’s Tom Casteel was a huge disappointment for me, acting wise I could see his potential though - I actually found his character irritating with his cringeworthy dialogue and constant high optimism at sometimes inappropriate times felt unnatural compared to how Basso and Clement played those scenes.

James Rittinger as Logan Stonewall was also another disappointment, especially considering he had very little chemistry with Basso - they did well in smaller intimate scenes, but there was something definitely lacking in the bigger and more intense scenes. Another character that changed drastically was Heaven’s English Teacher (played by Jacqueline Samuda) was unnecessarily spiteful to highlight the Casteel hatred everyone in town had - it would have been a lot more interesting if she was similar to her book counterpart and encouraged Heaven’s love of literature. Unfortunately, Karyn Mott’s portrayal of Logan's Mother came across as incredibly forced and unlike her book counterpart where she was passive aggressive and silently judgemental, she’s openly disrespectful and with what happens in later books I’m genuinely curious how her character could recover after the behaviour displayed - anyone else wouldn’t forgive half the things that character says or does in this version, but hopefully her performance improves in the following two films.

Despite the critics I have discussed here, I actually enjoyed this film more than I expected and I’m looking forward to reviewing the next four films in this series.

My original rating: 3/5 STARS