Up There (Zam Salim, 2011): U.K.

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

  Martin (Burn Gorman), is struck by a car and suddenly transposed to the afterlife.  His ethereal image walks aimlessly about, gazing hopelessly into the window of his former home, while his best buddy puts the make on his wife.  All Martin yearns for, is to go Up There, into blissful eternity.

Martin is told by his Counsellor (Chris Waitt) that he must attend meetings – a type of rehab for the dead – and work at receiving the newly departed into the afterlife.  Martin is getting on well with his first partner when he is suddenly snatched away and sent “up there.”

His second partner, Rash (Aymen Hamdouchi), is a big-mouth, in your face kind of guy who likes to brag about his death experience.  Rash is also a perv who gets distracted easily by the opposite sex.

The two stand around at hospital, waiting for their next victim as the ambulance pulls up.  Suddenly their new client becomes fearful and flees the scene, and Martin and Rash end up chasing him all over town as he continually slips through their hands.  Along the way they encounter all types of oddballs including Liz (Kate O’Flynn), who’s a victim of a murder/suicide, though it’s questionable what part she played in it.

Though dark in humor, Up There is 79 minutes of light-hearted entertainment, silly but fun, and very much a tale about temperance and forgiveness.