On Demand Weekly

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN (Millennium), starring Kate Hudson is available now On Demand before in theaters on May 4, 2012

A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN
By Amy Slotnick

It is hard to make cancer funny. Many have tried -- 50/50, WHEN GOD SAID HA! and THE BIG C, come to mind. Like those, A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN, the new film from director Nicole Kassel and screenwriter Gren Wells, succeeds with bringing levity and romance to a serious, and frightening subject.

Kate Hudson plays Marley Corbett, a successful, wildly funny and flirty advertising exec. Besides a few friends and a loyal bulldog, she lives a workaholic lifestyle, with one-night stands being a matter of course, along with regular breakfasts of Pepto Bismol. Emotions and commitment are generally kept at an arms length. So when Marley learns she has advanced stage colon cancer, it is not surprising that at first she attempts to hide and laugh at it, in order to avoid the grave meaning at all costs.

Marley’s doctor, played by Gael Garcia Bernal, is unable to resist her charm and their chemistry emerges, even when Hudson is made to look pale and drained from treatments. It takes Marley longer to open herself up to love, but when she finally does, she is all in, embracing feelings of joy along with her physical pain.