Defending Your Life (1991)

Average rating

(65%)

Starring:	Albert Brooks \| Michael Durrell \| Meryl Streep \| James Eckhouse
Director:	Albert Brooks
Genres:	Romance
Languages:	English
Released:	(unknown)

When Daniel, is killed in a car accident, he finds himself in 'Judgement City' and at a hearing about his life. Will his defence attorney be able to convince the judges that Daniel has done enough to earn his place on a higher plain of existence - or will he be consigned to another stint on Earth?

Radio Times

Director/star Albert Brooks here takes a ham-fisted run at judgement after demise, one of the most abused movie concepts since the glorious A Matter of Life and Death, with heaven portrayed as a large shopping mall complete with shuttle trucks and revolving doors. This is not Mr Brooks bumping into Van Gogh looking miserable or Abraham Lincoln looking wise, but rather the “ordinary Joe” version of the tale. Brooks's ensuing “trial” for entry through the non-pearly gates is an example of movie-making at its most tedious, and not even Meryl Streep in her heyday can enliven events.

Rating of 2 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide

Enjoyable comedy of modern manners, less concerned with the afterlife than with the here-and-now.

Highest rated reviews

3 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 0.0 stars
Avoid this at all costs

russbowes from , 24th September, 2007

Alarm bells should ring when you realise that the male 'star' of this film also wrote it, directed it and produced it. Obviously the film equivalent of vanity publishing - where you pay the publishers to publish your own book (usually because its so dire they wont pay to publish it themselves). Lord only knows why an actress of Streep's calibre agreed to be in this film - maybe she had some big bills come in and needed some cash fast. The premise is crass and clearly based on 'A Matter of Life and Death' - two people meet in the afterlife while they await judgement. Of course, they fall deeply in love and the film's basic storyline after this point is: will they be allowed to leave the 'holding area' together and go on towards whatever better place waits for them? Or will one of them be forced to stay behind in Purgatory? The only purgatory here is the one the viewer is forced to sit in while watching this crud.

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