This is a thoughtful little romance. Timothy Hutton is decent as Mike and a little better as Elmo. Kelly McGillis is cloyingly sweet as Annie but okay as Ally. I like that she gets to learn some of life's hard lessons - heartbreak, the loss of a parent, etc. Her time on earth is about growing up, since she was a "new soul" in Heaven. I also appreciate the journey that these two souls are on, to find one another and make their karmic kind of bond eternal. These are things that many of us romantics have wondered when we contemplate true love and whether there is really one special person out there for us or not. This movie attempts to address that question with some metaphysical bedazzling. It doesn't really address religion, other than to guarantee (according to Annie) that there is a God overseeing it all. Reincarnation is a thing. Jesus is never mentioned once. The main angel is called "Emmet" (and since "he" is played by Debra Winger I guess we are to surmise that "he" is transgender or somehow binary sexual) while the devil is represented by a living temptation named "Lucille" (Ellen Barkin). Some of the musical choices are inspiring, particularly the original featured song "We Never Danced" - which is supposed to be Elmo's baby and comes to the film courtesy of Neil Young, who also has a cameo as a truck driver. The cameos themselves are entertaining also. I especially like seeing one of my favorite authors, Tom Robbins, as a toymaker in Heaven. Ric Ocasek as a mechanic (of course). And Tom Petty as a hustler in a bar who gets out-hustled by Lucille. I also appreciate Ann Wedgeworth and James Gammon, who lend a little bit of reality to the film. Unlike many viewers, I wish more time were spent on earth instead of in Heaven, and that the earthly plot moved faster. It is the periodic slow bits where the characters are half-remembering their heavenly existence that drags this part of the film down. It could have kept the same idea by inserting references without having to montage or flashback so much. We could have seen more growth for Annie/Ally and Mike/Elmo. And the ending? Ummm ... yeah. I can only surmise that they were hit by a bus. Seriously. I think they see each other on the street and get immediately hit by a bus. The film does not show this but neither did it show Mike drowning at the beginning. So here's my spoiler. You will watch this film waiting for the big romantic meeting and hoping to see them start a new life together at the end, holding out for hope and all that. Nope. Somehow they must die because they recognize each other and end up back in Heaven with little explanation as to what happened. So they were hit by a bus. Or an atomic bomb went off and we missed it. They both died simultaneously of premature heart attacks when they recognized each other? Somehow, this is not a happy ending for me. Final review: good premise, some highlights, flawed presentation, deus ex machina ending.

If I believed everything that the movies showed me to be the truth then 'Made in Heaven' would make me want be in Heaven which is a luminescent garden teeming with beauty and light. I would not want to be on earth because it is a lonely cauldron of drunken despair and angst from which there is little hope.That having been said, the first half of 'Made in Heaven' is loaded with a lot of color and imagination. The second half isn't. The movie stars Timothy Hutton as Mike a likable guy who dies in an accident and goes to Heaven. There he meets a guy named Emmett who is God's personal spokeman. His aunt (Maureen Stapleton) lays out some of Heaven's rules which for my book sound a little to constricting for a place that is suppose to be the ultimate paradise. Hutton can decide where he wants to live in Heaven and he chooses a log cabin in the mountains.Heaven smiles on him even more when he meets a beauty named Annie (Kelly McGillis) who's predicament is fascinating from my point of view because she hasn't been born yet (The imagination given to this Heaven is allows it to be populated with the dead as well as the yet-to-be). By this development we now understand that their time is limited. Annie will eventually have to go back to earth to be born.Mike can't stand the thought of Heaven without her. His only hope is to go back to earth and live as someone else, the catch being that they don't remember any of their heavenly adventures together and will live separate lives completely oblivious of one another.This is where the movie grinds to a halt . . .Back on earth we meet Mike who is now Milo a musician with a bone to pick with just about everyone. His existence seems to coil up in bars and self-pity. Earth is dark and dirty and we know that it won't be too much longer until Milo and Annie who is now Ally will have a meeting before the closing credits. Why make the two oblivious of each other? Doesn't that ruin the motivation? We know what will happen to them but if they aren't looking for each other where is the momentum.My biggest problem with 'Made in Heaven' is that it moves as a snails pace. Every scene in the second half seems to run on too long and with a minimum of energy. This isn't just one of the worst climaxes I've seen in the movies, it's one of the most boring. If this movie teaches me anything it's that on the whole, I'd rather be in Heaven.

Love is absurd. Heaven is absurd. A movie about love and heaven may also be absurd or render the absurdity of love and heaven as palpable, revealing and refreshing. This movie truncates two lifetimes into two hours and leaves you with the sense that, for at least some of us, love is all that more powerful when we allow for the supernatural, the absurd components, to mix with biology. The fascinating consideration is that the woman was made (four-letter word for conceived) in Heaven and only subsequently was earth-bound. The existentialism is indeed fascinating in spite of the temporal truncation. As the poet Michael Biscardi has written, "There are some truths that serve where facts do not."

This was a fabulous movie. It makes you sad, and happy, and hoping, and wishing, and everything that a movie should do. The sound track alone is worth it, I bought it and it is SOoooooooooo GREAT!!! Both feature players, Hutton & McGillis are so convincing in their roles. GREAT movie!! It shows that Heaven can be all things for all people, and is just dreamy. You despair at the last minute and then,.... well, you will have to see it yourself. I think it's a real classic. At times it is a real heart grabber. You think.. JUST TURN AROUND!!!Wish it was on DVD.