Seeing Heaven (2010) User Reviews

Tedious rent boy dreams

[philip-1 · 4/10 · 28 March 2011]

Seeing Heaven is a very artistic film that certainly has a unique and often hypnotic aesthetic. The depiction of the gay porn sub culture is rather plastic and not very believable, but that is not what really defines the film.

The bizarre visions that the lead character has while attaining orgasm is really the main focus. The fatal mistake here is that director Ian Powell lingers on these nightmarish visions and repeats them with little variation, over and over again until the viewer just loses patience with the entire project. They certainly are intriguing at the beginning of the film, but when one sees the same collage of clips reoccurring throughout, they become annoyances that only hold up what little story there is. Ken Watanabe's constantly repeating music adds to the ever increasing monotony of the entire proceedings.

Actor Alexander Bracq is believable and beautiful to look at, but his understated, almost sleeping-walking like presence adds to the gradual boredom that sets in for the viewer. There is plenty of steamy sex and attractive bodies in the film, but frankly, if this is what you're looking for you might as well watch a real porn film rather than an artistic miscalculation about the porn industry.

With a faster pace, a better editor, and a more interesting script this might have been a really great experience. As it is, I'm glad to have seen it, but certainly would never return to this unsatisfying picture.

Too artsy just for the sake of it

[van_fannelx · 2/10 · 1 May 2011]

This film shows why being artsy just for the sake of it is not good, especially at the expense of plot clarity and good dialog. Half of the time I had to struggle to understand what the character is trying to say because they are too busy trying to be poetic when a simple line would have done the job of describing what he tries to say. Ditto with the repeated visual nightmare the main character keeps seeing. It's the same thing over and over again which is annoying.

The worst part of the film is that the pairing of the main character (Paul) with another character who has no chemistry with him (Griffin). Paul seems to have better chemistry with Zhivago and Baxter and moreover, those two seem to care more about him. Paul's romance with Griffin came out of nowhere as well.

As Julianne Moore said in The Big Lebowski

[davidacting · 1/10 · 15 August 2011]

~~"The story is ludicrous." Of course she was referring to the porn film playing in 'The Big Lebowski'. Hell, if you are English, you are SIMPLY not aloud to be a terrible actor. Not even in a movie like this one. The lead has an expression throughout the film that is so blank, one can only think of a piece of paper. Poor kid. Maybe the director was telling them on the set to 'do nothing', or 'play it down'. Either way, he comes off emotionless. No one has any training in this film, evidenced by the way they garble most of the dialog. BUT, all being said - I watched this with a girlfriend - at least tried to... we could only get through 45 minutes...for gay men I am sure the faces were pleasing to look at. I am hoping someone out there liked it. I still have to say bravo for Netflix putting this on streaming. I experienced something normally I wouldn't have watched, and it is always good to see all sides of the equation. Still, don't watch for plot, execution, acting, mise-en-scene, or really anything I guess, unless you are gay and you like a certain type of guy (I guess), that looks a certain way. There has to be better gay movies out there. I'll let my girlfriend decide (ha ha ha)..BUT at least they did it. They shot it, edited it, and completed it. For that, I give the team who made this film some credit.

Story with Potential Going Into Nothingness

[breckstewart · 2/10 · 18 April 2019]

For some reason, I was quickly turned off by the lack of budget and artsy pretentious soft erotica even though it doesn't always bother me. But I convinced myself to give this a fair shot because the original premise sounded intriguing. I should have known better but I went for it and watched the whole thing. Wow, what a bad movie.

The main thing that really bothered me, as pointed out by other reviewers is how some scenes and pieces of dialogue were repeated all throughout as if trying to make them sound more profound to the viewer but it just felt tiresome as things progressed.

The acting is by far the worst aspect of this production and that's saying something since we can totally see just how low budget this is yet, a lack of money never bothers me as long as creativity is present and rewards the watcher.

But in this very bad flick, the more time passes the worst the acting gets and the more the story goes south. Every scene becomes excruciating after a certain point and I had to work hard to keep watching. Even the sex scenes were boring, not that I would have wanted more explicit sexuality but I kept seeing just how uncomfortable the actors looked and it made me shudder.

The lead actor Alexander Bracq as Paul is probably the worst actor in the bunch. In the movie every character keeps referring to him as beautiful beyond words, including himself and although the actor is cute enough, he is no supreme Adonis in my humble opinion. This repeated statement made things quite laughable as things progressed and it kept pulling me out of the story in disbelief. As far as looks are concerned, a little humility goes a long way in my book.

The ending is just as atrocious as I expected and even though there are some nice moments here and there throughout, this film was stuck between wanting to be a soft porn with no explicit sex and a "regular" story with no foundation. So nothing really worked and I was relieved when it concluded.

I have seldom seen a movie so bizarre and weird but I usually like anything that doesn't conform and tries to be original but in this case, the story is just too monotonous and redundant to become anything but a huge letdown, not that I expected much anyway by the time the credits rolled.

I felt bad giving this only 1 star so I gave it 2, mostly for the courage it took to try something different but without a proper sense of pacing and a lack of originality the film didn't stand a chance. Too bad cause I wanted to like it but that just didn't happen.

I don't recommend it either unless you are prepared to really work at trying to enjoy yourself. I did on my end and it got me nowhere but maybe you'll have more luck on that front.

Why so negative about it?

[ambientalchaos · 7/10 · 29 March 2012]

I've read a lot of negative critiques for this film but actually, although very explicit and awkward this movie is, it's very realistic. I've seen so many wanna-be-horror movies with supernatural beings and too much transparent things but none was scary as this one. It scared the duck out of me. I was shaking for 106 minutes because this things can actually happen to any of us in real life. However, I'm still feeling sad because it didn't end the way I'd like it to. I love happy endings, and this one wasn't happy for sure. I wanted his twin to show up alive and it seems unbelievable to me that he can just move on living without his brother. I would never move on on my own.

Although, I'm still under pressure even It's been three days since I watched it. After all, I think this movie will stay forever in my memory, it's really impressive. I recommend everyone with a good stomach to watch it. If I had more time, I'd probably make a fan video...:D

Dark, amazing, slightly twisted, moody and sexual! loved it!

[wadestevens · 9/10 · 19 April 2011]

I absolutely ADORED this film and could not disagree more with the other reviewer here. The things he found boring and monotonous, I actually think these very parts are what make the film so good. Its meant to be dark and kind of moody, i liken it (the mood) to Donnie Darko but not quite as bizarre. The dream sequences are stunning and are only repetitive to a point, which is the point i think, each time they are shown throughout the film, we are shown a little more, from different angles that reveal more while not answering questions.... it had me guessing to the very end...who is behind the mask? what happened to his brother? and is he even real? these are a few of the questions i found myself asking, hence me wanting to watch more and get more drawn in, until you are finally given the answers in a pretty awesome twist i reckon! :) I suppose it just goes to show, what some people love about a film, can be the very same thing that turns someone off (though its kinda hard not to be turned on! there's a lot of sex scenes and nudity, but its not gratuitous). If you want to watch a gay themed movie thats different to any other so far, id say watch "seeing heaven". I personally LOVED IT!

Ambitious Film

[jromanbaker · 7/10 · 23 February 2021]

Alexander Bracq has a strong erotic presence, and a face as inscrutable as Garbo. I am shocked at the number of poor reviews this film has had. It is gripping, but sags a bit with repetitive hallucinatory/dream images. It is a scenario full of imagination and the director, Ian Powell almost brings it off as being a really fine Gay/Queer cinematic experience. It is basically the story of a male escort in search of his missing brother and on that I am giving away no spoilers. From being an escort he drifts into the porn industry, and most of the people around him have no idea of his mental state, which is very bad indeed. It is as if he is constantly pursued, waking and dreaming with nightmares and visions which are in my opinion quite well realised for the viewer. And yes, some may object, but the use of condoms is repeated more than once in the film. It is not ant-choice but just plain common sense, and the film reinforces that to be persuaded that it is the ultimate ' thrill ' of flesh to flesh without barriers by people with invested interests is not desirable. The porn industry is portrayed as being both good and bad, and there is a certain sense of camaraderie among the men who partake in it. The set up of this particular gay studio that Bracq enters is in conflict, where one director has ideals and the money backer very dark ones. Sadly the dark motives and the setting up of horrifying scenarios, fuelled by dangerous drugs is not homophobic but shows sadly how certain men in control of the industry can destroy lives. It is in the setting up of one such particular scene that I thought let the film down. It is shot as if we are suddenly in a Hammer horror film, or a scene out of such nonsense as ' The Devil Rides out '. The latter an appallingly badly written trash novel by Dennis Wheatley, hopefully now lost to the oblivion it deserves. This is a shame as it is reality we are dealing with, and not one of the lead young actor's hallucinations. This could very much lead viewers to thinking that all explicit eroticism is bad, and in so doing lead to a homophobic reaction. Overall the acting is average, but to be honest a lot of independent cinema has shown a lot worse than this. Despite that quibble the film is erotic in itself without being explicit, and for gay viewers that should be appealing. Eroticism in straight film has been around for a long while to be enjoyable as well as good film, and there is no reason why Gay/Queer film should not have its equivalent as being slightly arousing to watch. But to return to Alexander Gracq. He is a mysterious and strangely different actor than most leads in gay cinema, and this film ( I have no idea how it was received in 2010 ) is thanks to him, and he is in most scenes, and hopefully was praised at the time. I give this a 7 when I was hoping to give it a 10. It is well worth seeing, despite all its faults, and is a good contribution to imaginative cinema.

One very weird Gay-Community film re: gay interactions

[pslust · 9/10 · 2 May 2014]

This was a film that deserved more than one viewing as this film was quite intellectual, definitely soul-searching and soul-search-able, was quite the thought provoker, AND the actors were quite cute to boot. Speaking of actors, the actor playing the main character was definitely someone that Jonathan Frid, he played Barnabas Collins in an old television series, would have been quite proud to see to join the Brotherhood of Vampires; the actor as the main character was that serious, that cold, that vulnerable, AND yet still very human. This will definitely be one film that I will add to my permanent collection, and one that I look forward to watching again. Compared to the other "gay" films I have seen to date, this one stands out. Why? Simple: it brought you in with its puzzles, with human interactions from a very gay-oriented perspective, and you had to stay to the very end to see how this movie ended.