Al sur del cielo

Newb co-writer, producer and director Aharon Keshales was close to having a great film, but sadly missed the mark with many rookie filmmaking mistakes. For starters, many scenes were way too long and unnecessary, and the slow pacing made the two-hour runtime feel endless. This film needed at least 20 mins cut out of it to maintain suspense and make it more engaging.

Then, having random events happen that are irrelevant to the main narrative detract from the film's main premise; at around the one hour mark, the story basically hits the reset button and a entirely different narrative begins. It's like the beginning of a different episode and it all happens purely by chance and key conflicts of the first hour are completely inconsequential to what follows. You keep expecting them to intersect, but they never do. There's no motivation or reason behind it, a random event simply happens for no other reason than the writers merely wanted to put Jimmy in another tough spot.

That's the major issue this film had, the disjointed and convoluted events that confuse the narrative, and make you lose interest in the characters and faith in their motivations - like when Jimmy goes from a sweet and doting schlub to a one-shot-killing henchmen destroyer - it gets really implausible in a hurry. To make matters worse, Keshales decides to ruin a happy and satisfying ending with a fade-out and fade-in enigmatic final shot that adds yet another question to the already convoluted mess.

Nevertheless, all casting and performances were excellent, especially Sudeikis and Lilly with their convincing chemistry, and the score and cinematography where spot on. It's too bad the writing couldn't have been tighter and more focused.

I'm a sucker for jason sudeikis, i usually swoon over his work, but this movie is lacking something, the story has definitely been done before and the acting was off.

"South of Heaven" tells a story of a criminal who got out of prison, and is dragged back into the world of crime. However, the focus is the love story, so it is better conceptualised as a romance film with a criminal protagonist. This is perhaps why people who are expecting adrenaline end up being disappointed by this film.

I don't know how Aharon Keshales got the money to hire A-list actors, but the money was all spent on the lead.

Nothing was spent on sets, music, sound, editing... and the decision to direct his own script was a disaster.

This needed a massive rewrite to fix plot holes and a serious director and cinematographer to make it more Cormac McCarthy.

Bad bad bad.

Evangeline Lily is always great and Jason did well in a serious role, but the plot and tempo and lack of chemistry was more a director problem than an actor problem.

Sad to see something this bad hit Sudeikas' career right now.

Total waste of time.

It's far above the average films made for 16-year old boys in this country. The story is tight, as is the acting, cinematography, locations and casting.

I really don't understand what is happening with people's reviews in the last two years. Maybe it's psychological damage from CV? This is not an Academy Award level movie, but it's far better than the hate it's getting.