Four-year-old Colton Burpo is the son of Todd Burpo, pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska. Colton says he experienced Heaven during an emergency surgery. He describes to his incredulous family about having seen the surgeon operating, his mother calling people in the waiting room to pray, and his father in another room yelling at God to not let him die. He also speaks of incidents with people he never met or knew about: meeting a great-grandfather who had died long before he was born, an unborn sister he never knew about who had died in a miscarriage, and having met Jesus. Colton speaks about his experiences in Heaven, and Todd is faced with the dilemma of determining the legitimacy of his son's experience. Todd's wariness about discussing the situation erodes the confidence of the board members of his church, and he is contacted by several members of the media. When Todd is called by a radio station for an impromptu on-air interview, he invites them to attend his sermon the following Sunday. At church, he preaches about his son's experiences and reveals his support for him. Following the events at the church, Todd is doing research on the Internet and finds a story about a Lithuanian girl who had a similar experience. Her recall of Jesus was identical to that of Colton. Todd tries to speak to Colton further about the experience but he is interrupted by his wife revealing that she is pregnant with another child. Photos of Colton and his family are shown in the present day.
Cast
Connor Corum as Colton Burpo
Greg Kinnear as Todd Burpo, a small-town pastor in Nebraska
Kelly Reilly as Sonja Burpo, Burpo's wife
Lane Styles as Cassie Burpo, Burpo's daughter and Colton's sister
In May 2011, Sony Pictures acquired the film rights of the book Heaven Is for Real. It was announced that Joe Roth would be producing the film with T. D. Jakes for the TriStar Pictures division of Sony Pictures. On August 23, 2012 Braveheart writer and Secretariat director Randall Wallace signed on to direct. On March 19, 2013, it was announced that Greg Kinnear was in talks to star, and he later joined the cast. On April 15, 2013, actress Kelly Reilly joined the film. On July 17, it was reported that composer Nick Glennie-Smith would score the film, and behind the scenes, the director of photography was Dean Semler. Shooting began in the last week of July 2013 in Selkirk, Manitoba.
Release
The film was released on April 16, 2014 and held a 3,048 theater count through its 4th week.
Reception
Box office
At the end of box office run, the Heaven Is for Real earned a gross of $91,443,253 in North America and $9,026,536 in other territories for a worldwide total of $100,469,789 against a budget of $12 million. The film grossed $3.7 million on its opening day. It went on to gross a total of $22.5 million in its opening weekend, playing in 2,417 theaters for a $9,318 per-theatre average finishing in second behind . The biggest markets in other territories were Mexico, Poland, and Colombia where the film grossed $1.9 million, $1.4 million, and $1.2 million, respectively.
Critical response
Heaven Is for Real received mixed reviews. The film holds a 50% rating on the film aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 83 reviews, with an average score of 5.5/10. The site's consensus states, "Heaven Is for Real boasts a well-written screenplay and a talented cast, but overextends itself with heavy-handed sequences depicting concepts it could have trusted the audience to take on faith." On another website, Metacritic, it has a 47/100 score, based on reviews from 27 critics. In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Jeb Lund, a columnist for The Guardian, expressed skepticism about the depiction of the story in the film. The red markers which Colton Burpo claims Jesus had on his hands and feet are well known. The boy could have easily guessed his minister father would have been praying or nursing staff could have told him.
