Fox Movie Channel

Impossible Love

HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON

Let me introduce you to Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. A story about a man, a woman, an island and a war. A movie from the fifties with palpable performances from Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr. A movie about impossible love and real violence. Now we know that love and war are inherently good fodder for film, and we know my opinion about how good acting is what really elevates a movie into something more. This movie delivers on the emotion and the conflict and, importantly, on the acting. Which is a coup, considering how many other movies from that time period are, shall we say, pre-Method. Pre-Method Production Code love stories sometimes make me want to throw up. But thankfully, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is well acted, and it's also a good story. (Plus it's in Color by Deluxe. And man do I love color processed film.)

Let us start with impossible love as a good movie device. It's really at the core of so many movies. Impossible as in I am a dainty, classically trained ballet dancer from a privileged background, and you are a thuggy inner city street dancing janitor. Impossible like I am a manly, good looking flannel wearing cowboy and you are a manly, good looking, flannel wearing cowboy. Impossible like that - only in this case, even more so. Because I'm a killing machine Marine and you're a devoted-to-God nun. And we're trapped on an island together, relying on each other for survival, surrounded by the falling bombs of the Pacific theater of World War II. All we have is each other and our fear, and yet we can't get together. And that sure makes it complicated.

There is a reality to this situation which makes everything these characters endure so critical - the stake of real violence. This isn't a freaky Green Goblin ruining a parade. Not some made up aliens or zombies or cars that have transformed into giant humanoid machines in order to carry out an intergalactic fight on our planet. This is mother f-ing World War II, and there are people, lots of real people with real guns, who really want to kill our nun and our Marine. And still, they can't get together. . .

Now I told you straight up that I was going to be a sap with this one. It's a love story more than a war story, and it just punches my secret romantic right in the stomach. Being marooned on an island in the midst of a brutal war forces this unlikely pair into a necessary intimacy. But then the fact that they can't get together is perfectly agonizing, and excruciatingly punctuated by all the moments they share. If you are at all looking for a romantic fix, this is it. Plus Robert Mitchum is all hot and hunky - tough yet vulnerable, brutal yet heroic, doltish in ways but perceptive in others. And also adorable. I would be willing to be stuck on an island with him. But that would be a different story entirely.