What’s especially dispiriting is the botched potential of the film’s premise. Here’s a story about a Baptist minister who dies in a horrific car accident, has a transformative trip to the Pearly Gates and suddenly finds himself brought back to life, reciting the lyrics of a hymn sung by a minister to his bloodied corpse. So taken was Piper with his vision of Heaven that he began to lack the motivation necessary to continue on his path toward recovery. He grew distant from his family and friends, repelling the very acts of kindness that he used to administer on a daily basis to those in need.
The role of Piper requires an actor that can involve the audience in his emotional struggle, all the while being confined to a hospital bed. Casting Hayden Christensen is the film’s first fatal misstep. Once again mistaking pouting expressions and mumbled line delivery for a vivid characterization, as he did so notoriously as Anakin Skywalker, Christensen is an infuriating presence from frame one. There’s a reason why the actor’s best film remains “Shattered Glass,” Billy’s Ray’s excellent 2003 profile of a deceitful journalist: the actor is most convincing as a phony. It’s much harder for him to make sincerity credible, which is a major problem in this case, since his character is the one tasked with repeatedly declaring, “Heaven is real!”
If that line sounds familiar, it may be because it bears a suspicious resemblance to the title of last year’s highest-grossing evangelical release, “Heaven Is For Real,” a film that is superior on every conceivable level. That picture also recounted the fact-based tale of a near-death experience, yet it actually dealt with the spiritual crises and doubts that arose in its aftermath. “90 Minutes in Heaven” seems to take for granted the notion that audiences will buy Piper’s story, and thus exerts no effort to make it convincing, let alone interesting.
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