Defending Your Life

Dir: Albert Brooks

1991

*****

There must be hundreds of versions and visions of both heaven and hell in the world of TV and cinema, heaven being mostly seen as a mostly white utopia and hell as being a fiery pit of red, but there aren't that many visual examples of purgatory or what it would actually be like. Albert Brooks, who wrote and stars as the film's main character, has come up with a probable scenario in what is a brilliantly droll and satirical comedy. Brooks plays young advertising executive Daniel, who seems to have it sussed on the surface, enjoying the things most people could only dream of. When he gets hit by a bus and killed due to reckless driving, he finds himself arriving in a place called Judgement City. He is given a very brief welcome and it is explained to him that everything is all inclusive, the buffet is all you can eat and he won't put on any weight. He has full use of all the facilities during his stay including bowling alleys and comedy clubs and is told to relax and take everything in his stride and is promptly sent to a sub-standard hotel to sleep of his initial 'jet-lag'. His next day, he is bused to visit his life lawyer who will make the case on his behave that he continues to heaven, rather than go back to earth, reincarnated as someone else and essentially, start all over again - seen as something of a failure in Judgement City. Daniel learns that he's actually been through Judgement City an alarming amount of times and it is imperative that he gets to heaven soon. Rip Torn plays his lawyer, a little unsympathetic and very much a lawyer's lawyer. Purgatory is essentially an administration resort, a functioning land a little like the hotel complexes you get near airports - no one really wants to stay there, it's comfortable enough but you stay on your way to somewhere else. When Daniel meets Julia (played by Meryl Streep), they become immediately attracted to one another and one it becomes clear she is almost certain to get to heaven, Daniel does everything he can to try and work out why he isn't progressing. Julia's hotel is much fancier than Daniel's and the restaurant near to her serves much nicer food, this is a very slight but clever way of suggesting that things are often what you make of them, although it is never clear whether that is in fact the case or not. There are wonderful scene and ideas going on, the court scenes whereby Daniel's past life is inspected in full detail are great and there are some wonderful scenes in Judgement City's comedy club (where all the jokes are about dying) and in the gallery of reincarnation, where you sit in your own booth and come face to face with all of your past lives. Daniel's lawyer tells him that on earth you only use three percent of your brain and that he has to use more to go further, uttering that you wouldn't want to live on earth when you learn to use five percent. It's a uniquely funny idea that is explored brilliantly and it does raise many questions, without really having to answer them. It's a strange romantic film too, the stranger the better in my opinion and both Brooks and Streep are wonderful together. It's such an odd film, clever but never boastfully so, balancing personal questions and beliefs with thick satire and perceptive whimsy. I love it, there is no other film quite like it and everything is next to perfect.