The discovery of heaven is the magnum opus of Dutch writer Harry Mulisch, where science, religion and philosophy meet in a 900-page book full of autobiographical details, among which the persecution of Jews in WW2 and the roaring sixties. The story in a nutshell: Science and technology have on earth substituted the Ten Commandments of Moses, so a plan is conceived by God and his angels to bring the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments back from earth to heaven, as the contract between mankind and God is abandoned. Angels are given this task by God, and a child is born on earth to accomplish heaven's plan. The child is the result of a love triangle between astronomer Max Delius (the writer Mulisch), politician Onno Quist and a cellist Ada Brons. (One example of the level of detail in the book: A remarkable congruency is that Max's father, who betrayed his Jewish wife in WW2, has three important locations where his life played out and Auschwitz is the center of again a triangle) As the book states that coincidence does not exist and everything has a reason, all events happening are arranged by angels in heaven including the conception of the child, although Max Delius is on the brink of scientifically discovering heaven.In the script they made a good effort to condense the book to its bare essentials by selecting the most relevant parts for the movie. But there are (also in the book) irrelevant loose elements that seem redundant and distract from the core message: Vietnam demonstrations, the whole Cuba part, some characters and relations add little. And there are things from the book they could have used like all mothers having the same face after the tablets are placed. Stephen Fry's often failed attempts to be funny are out of place although the book contains some humor: The weapon course in Cuba and Onno's walking stick interpreted as a miracle when seen as Moses' stick. The ending is better in the book than in the movie, where it is somewhat banal.The pacing is unnecessarily slow despite the enormous amount of events happening in both the movie and the book. The story is told in a very predictable and straightforward way; the director Jeroen Krabbé is just not up to this job and has little imagination and visual style. Take the many direct references to religion and heaven and even the way heaven is represented. Or the clumsy way the deaths are foreshadowed with a short flash. I guess Peter Greenaway (planning to do a movie on Rembrandt) would have been a better choice as director, but this had to make some money being a lavish production for Dutch standards. The role of God and angels is comparable here to that of the writer of the book; in the movie to the role of the director (and even actor Krabbé as angel). Because the best movies are usually about other movies, the book and script lacks writers, photographers, painters or publishers to lift this to a meta-level. Here we have the relative mundane politicians and scientists.As science is about everything that can be potentially explained, religion is about everything that can not be explained rationally. The book and movie's statement that physics may one day take over religion, or make religion redundant, is fairly accurate as metaphysics is coming increasingly closer to a theory of everything. But as our knowledge increases, a warning is issued that it will not necessarily lead to a greater happiness or higher morality. The book and movie mixes small, uninteresting stories with larger-than-life stories in a strange and awkward way. It also messes things up inconsistently (e.g. in the book there is an image of concentration camps in space). Some of the book and movie consists of contrived, pseudo-intellectual nonsense, being deliberately pretentious lacking any mastery of the art form at hand (be it writing or film-making).

I can't fathom all the praise that this film has received on this site (or any other for that matter). I saw a screening of this movie months ago and was asked to be in the focus group. After the screening, people were lined up asking to be in the focus group because they wanted to express to the film makers what a waste of plastic the movie is and to suggest that it never be released in the U.S. After the focus group was over, several audience members got together outside the theater to continue talking about the painful experience we had all just been through...a kind of bad movie support group.This is a terrible film. The performances are phoned in. The plot is absolutely ridiculous. It starts out as a bad romantic comedy and becomes an even worse biblical epic. Embarrassing. Absolute tripe.

Holland seems to squeeze out a couple of good films every once in a while, like Soldier of Orange or Left Luggage. The Discovery of Heaven is another one. Again directed (like Left Luggage) by Jeroen Krabbé (who also stars (AGAIN)). I can understand that the film is not for everybody, but I liked it, even though I am of the generation that is used to big explosions, a lot of action and no story. The film is in English, so you won't have to struggle with that stupid Dutch and I sincerely thank Krabbé for filming Harry Mulisch's classic book entirely in English, for otherwise, I would not have seen it. It sure is the best Dutch film of the 21st century. Keep it up. 7 out of 10

I saw this one together with my father, he read the book, i didn't bother to read the 600 pages. I dont like Mullisch very much he does. The actors are so well chosen, the fit in just right. Quinten could really be their son etc. I cried, i laughed it was just great. Funny part is to see the places in a'dam and westerbork were i've been myself. First finnishing my book i'm reading now, then Mullisch and then prob. Lord of the Rings. I wouldn't say thjis was the best movie i ever seen, but it sure fits in between my other favourites like the godfather, apocalypse now etc. Maybe to much credit but i was wondering if that was because i'm dutch. But the movie has such an international caracter that i doubt it. Well that's it. let me know what you though of it. Bart