| A Night in Heaven | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John G. Avildsen |
| Written by | Joan Tewkesbury |
| Produced by | Gene Kirkwood Hawk Koch |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | David L. Quaid |
| Edited by | John G. Avildsen |
| Music by | Jan Hammer |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million[1] |
| Box office | $5.5 million (US)[2] |
A Night in Heaven is a 1983 Americanromanticdrama film directed byJohn G. Avildsen, starringChristopher Atkins as college student Rick Monroe andLesley Ann Warren his professor Faye Hanlon. The film's screenplay was written byJoan Tewkesbury. Film critics widely panned the film, but the film itself became better known forBryan Adams' chart-topping single "Heaven".
Outspoken and overconfident Rick Monroe is ajock and a popular guy at a community college inTitusville, Florida. At the end of his final report for his class, Rick cracks a joke and his prim and proper speech professor, Faye Hanlon, is not amused. After chiding him for his joke, she decides to flunk him and make him take the course over again.
Faye is going through a slump in her marriage to Whitney Hanlon, a rocket scientist who has just been laid off from NASA. Visiting fromChicago, Faye's free-spirited sister Patsy takes her to a malestrip club to cheer her up. The show features a performer called "Ricky the Rocket", who is none other than Faye's student Rick. This is the same place where Rick works on the side as a male stripper to pay for his fees. When he notices Faye in the crowd, he gives her a very speciallap dance, kissing her in the process.
The next day, Faye and Rick run into each other at a school function. Initially, Rick is interested only in convincing Faye to allow him another chance at his final and is rebuffed. He realizes that she is attracted to him and begins flirting. Faye arranges to meet Patsy near her hotel, only to discover that she has been deceived into seeing another performance by "Ricky the Rocket".
Since Patsy has to return home a day early, she turns over use of her hotel room to Faye, who calls Whitney and lies that she and Patsy are staying at Patsy's hotel together. Coincidentally, Rick's mother Mrs. Johnson works in the same hotel, and while visiting his mother, Rick runs into Faye again; they return to Faye's room and have sex. Faye must leave and in her absence, Rick invites his girlfriend Slick Ferguson to the room where she has sex with him as well. Faye catches them in the shower and, humiliated, escapes; she realizes that she has been deceived.
Returning home from an unsuccessfuljob interview, Whitney discovers that Patsy has gone home. Whitney travels to the hotel, where he catches Rick as the latter is exiting. Hekidnaps Rick at gunpoint, takes Rick to a skiff at a small dock, and forces him to strip. Rick looks helplessly at Whitney, who gets angry because his orders were not followed exactly, and Rick sobbingly complies. Whitney threatens Rick repeatedly, but ultimately only shoots holes in the skiff, leaving a naked Rick aboard as it sinks in the middle of the river.
Faye returns home to find Whitney waiting for her; she apologizes, and he forgives her. At the end, the couple talk about their problems and resolve them.
Development on the film began in 1980 atUnited Artists.[3] The story, which was originally titledLadies' Night, was conceived by choreographerDeney Terrio and was said to be set in the world of male exotic dancers.[3] In 1981, it was announcedJoan Tewkesbury would write the screenplay.[3] As part of her research, Tewkesbury spent time at male strip clubs in Florida.[3] Principal photography was reported to begin in January 1982 inOrlando, but production was delayed until that August with the announcementNicolas Roeg would helm the film, and20th Century Fox taking over distribution duties from United Artists.[3]John G. Avildsen replaced Roeg as the director.[3]
Filming began on January 19, 1983, in Orlando andMiami and lasted until late March.[3] The film's title was changed fromLadies' Night toHeaven, the name of the club where Rick Monroe (Christopher Atkins) dances,[4] and was eventually titledA Night in Heaven.[3]
The original music score is composed byJan Hammer, and the soundtrack features two songs that would belatedly become hugepop hits. "Heaven", co-written and performed byBryan Adams, would become Adams' first American number one song on theBillboard Hot 100 when it was re-released in 1985 (it originally charted high on theMainstream Rock chart shortly after the film's release).[5] In addition, the song "Obsession", performed on the soundtrack by its co-writers,Holly Knight andMichael Des Barres, would be covered and released as a single by the bandAnimotion on theirself-titled album, who turned the song into a top ten hit in early 1985.[6] The film also featured the song "Dirty Creature" by New Zealand/Australian groupSplit Enz.[7]
A Night in Heaven received largely negative reviews from critics, who cited its confusing plot and unresolved story lines.Roger Ebert wrote, "I’ve rarely seen a movie with more interior evidence of compromise thanA Night in Heaven. You can sit in this brief, unsatisfying feature and put your finger on the places where important scenes are missing. Afterward, you can ask a lot of questions that the movie should have answered."[8] He added the film starts off "by talking about love and fidelity, quitting a job for ethical reasons, and, in the words of the song, looking, for love in all the wrong places", but ultimately "doesn't pay off on any of them".[8]
The film's incoherent narrative and abrupt character turns led critics to surmise that the film underwent significant cuts or changes during production.[9][8][10][11][12][13] Ebert argued, "The director, John Avildsen, is a serious and good director; his credits includeRocky,Joe,Save the Tiger andNeighbors. It is impossible to believe this is the movie he wanted to make."[8] In addition, he called attention to the mismarketing of the movie and how it "plays up the sex angle", though the film comes to focus more on the Hanlons' marital woes and Whitney (Robert Logan)'s midlife crisis.[8][14] In his review,Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times wrote "all boredom breaks loose", and similarly to Ebert, posited "whether what is on the screen is what [Tewkesbury] wrote".[10]
Tim Brayton ofAlternate Ending wrote, "Avildsen is not without an eye for capturing the sweaty fatigue of environments, and that trick serves him well at multiple points throughout this movie, but it’s mostly just spackling a respectable gloss on a tawdry scenario in a tawdry milieu."[15] He concluded: "it’s an outright joke to pretend that we can cobble together the dog-ends of ignored subplots into a treatise on economic tension in the early years of theReagan presidency. It’s not sordid enough to be decent junk...and other than offering the unusual sight of male objectification in a Hollywood studio picture, there’s nothing about it that justifies so much as a sidelong glance."[15]
Though the film was mostly maligned, the scene where Faye Hanson (Lesley Ann Warren) encounters Rick at the strip club was described as "a scene of considerable erotic effectiveness" by Ebert.[8] Brayton praised Warren's performance and said the scene is "the most human, interesting material in the film, and it’s largely wasted, but Warren deserves a lot of credit for the effort."[15]
In an interview, Tewkesbury admitted producers made numerous changes to her script.[4] Avildsen later said the narrative incoherence came from his desire for the film to be about marital forgiveness after infidelity, but Tewkesbury was unable to write the scenes that would emphasize this message.[16] He said the film "was really terrible. I knew it... I have absolutely no defense for it. I'd almost be willing to give people their money back."[17]
The film was abox-office bomb, grossing just over $5.5 million on a $6 million budget.[2]
Atkins won the 1983Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor at the4th Golden Raspberry Awards.[18]
