Directed by: Warren Beatty and Buck Henry
Starring: Warren Beatty, James Mason, Julie Christie, Dyan Cannon, Charles Grodin, Jack Warden, Buck Henry, Deacon Jones, Joseph Maher
Warren Beatty pulls quadruple duty as star, co-director, co-writer, and producer of Heaven Can Wait, and he infuses what could've been a silly screwball comedy with intelligence and charm. The movie has a naturally silly premise anyway, but it is endearing.
The film is a remake of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan, updated for the late 1970's. Los Angeles Rams backup quarterback Joe Pendleton (Beatty) is on the tail end of his football career when is he named the new starting quarterback. Joe goes for a bike ride one day and has what seems to be a fatal collision in a tunnel with a tractor trailer. Joe is off to a waiting station on the way to heaven, but it turns out Joe's angel (Henry) mistakenly pulled Joe's soul from the impending crash moments too soon, and thus robbing Joe from living another 40-50 years. Joe would've missed the truck, you see, but none of that is of any comfort since Joe's body in Earth was cremated and now Joe has to stand around in heaven wondering what to do next.
No worries. Mr. Jordan (Mason), the head honcho of the waiting station, finds Joe a new body on Earth so he can live out the rest of the days which were taken from him. The body belongs to Leo Farnsworth, a billionaire industrialist drugged and drowned in his bathtub by his scheming wife Julia (Cannon) and his assistant Tony (Grodin), who want to cash in on the insurance money. Imagine their shock when Leo (really Joe) emerges from the bathtub unscathed. Leo wasn't a great guy though. His goal seemed to be to enrich himself by building factories and destroying the environment. But, Joe/Leo wants to change all that, especially when the pretty environmental protester Betty Logan (Christie) comes knocking at his door. When she demands one of his factories be removed from her hometown in England, how could he say no?
Leo/Joe wants to be a quarterback again, though, and goes about this by buying the Rams and installing himself as the starting quarterback. He convinces his friend and trainer Max Corkle (Warden) that he is indeed Joe in Farnsworth's body and they work to get his body back in shape in time for the upcoming Super Bowl. Leo/Joe's new team isn't thrilled with this development, and his offensive line nearly gets him squashed in practice.
There is a touch of screwball in Heaven Can Wait, especially when Mr. Jordan materializes and Leo/Joe has to hold conversations with them in a closet. Julia and Tony continue to plot Leo's murder and are amazed how he manages to cheat death, until one day he doesn't, leading to another set of complications as Mr. Jordan finds Joe his new permanent body on Earth. Joe falls in love with Betty, but for reasons not entirely explained, Joe's spirit will disappear when he enters his final body, and thus not remember anything about his previous lives. Even so, Heaven Can Wait has a happy and hopeful ending.
Heaven Can Wait was made with care, with Beatty and company not plumbing the material for slapstick opportunities, but instead for warm, gentle humor and a convincing romance at its core.
It mostly steps right, and the result is magical.
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