Children of Heaven is a great movie. Completely atypical of average American family “entertainment,” it tells an amazing story of two children and a family who love each other—without cartoon violence, foul language, or ridiculous situations. It is uplifting and at times heart-breakingly beautiful. If your children are at least seven they should have no trouble reading the sub-titles. Highly, highly recommended.

Comments

1. Phil on 2007-01-03 16:26:59 wrote: I put that in my queue awhile ago but forgot about it. Will have to bump it to the top… Thanks!

2. Anna on 2007-01-17 07:19:12 wrote: Just saw this last night. Had to come back here and comment to the entry that made me rent it. I love this movie! If I can’t find it to buy it, I may “lose” it to Netflix. We watched it last night with our seven year old. And during the few dialogues that were actually necessary to understand, my husband and I read the parts. The rest we just explained if we thought it needed explaining, which wasn’t often. I think Meghan was expecting something else and wasn’t as warmed. She was focused a bit on all the work those kids had to do and it was my motherly duty to remind her how easy she’s got it and how beautiful it was for the kids to help out without complaining and being told more than once! — spoiler alert — But the movie. Wow. The family relationships were so real. The strict father who truly loves his kids. I particularly liked the boy’s love for his father - not wanting to burden him the knowledge of the shoes - not because the father would beat them, though he might - but because his father couldn’t afford new ones right then so there was just no point in hurting him to tell him. The race seen was just amazing. My heart was just pounding. His little determined face! And when he was knocked down! I sat up straighter and did what I could not to tear up about it. I have a love hate relationship with the ending. That little boy worked so hard for his sister. And we never got to see him be happy in the end. He was devastated that he came in first. He was a smart boy, and we could guess that he should have come up with the fact that he could probably trade his sport suit or whatever it was that first prize got with the trip with the pair of shoes he wanted for his sister. But I guess he was too heartbroken to think about things like that, and we viewers had to see him heartbroken. I loved the silent exchange between brother and sister. But it made me so sad not to see the happy ending. I realize that the happy ending would finish it too neatly. We had to have it left open. But still. Thanks for recommending this movie. Your short little review, and then Netflix’s short little description - something just struck with me. I’m glad I added it to the queue.

3. Lisa on 2007-11-08 09:55:27 wrote: (Found your site while looking up instructions for tiling a small bathroom – thanks!) This is from the Wikipedia entry about this movie: “The film ends with Zahra finding out that she will not get a new pair of shoes, but an epilogue explains that Ali eventually achieves the larger-scale success of having a racing career. … In the English DVD version of the film, the epilogue is not translated.” The end of the movie is a lot happier once you know that!