The Other Side of Heaven (2001) on Netflix
PG20011h 53mAdventureBiographyDrama
John Groberg leaves Idaho Falls and his fiancée Jean for a three-year mission in the Tongan islands. On Niuatoputapu he must learn the language and win the islanders' trust.
- Netflix2.3/5
- IMDb6.3/105,163 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes30%
Trailer
Plot summary
John Groberg finishes his studies at Brigham Young University and is called to a three-year mission in the Tongan islands, leaving behind Jean, the woman he plans to marry. The two exchange letters across the Pacific during the 1950s while he settles into island life. Assigned to the remote island of Niuatoputapu with a Tongan companion named Feki, Groberg studies the language and the local customs. A local minister tells the islanders to ignore the two missionaries and sends four men to beat them. Groberg also forgets to cover his feet one night, and rats bite him while he sleeps.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Other Side of Heaven (2001)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The real John and Jean Groberg gave feedback on the script, and Jean Groberg handed Davis the letters she and John had exchanged, which were used in filming the scenes where the two write to one another.
- Christopher Gorham was cast in the lead role as John Groberg after Mitch Davis auditioned "hundreds and hundreds of actors on both coasts", picking him because he exhibited "a little light in his eyes".
- After Hathaway was cast in the lead role of Disney's 2001 adaptation of The Princess Diaries, distribution of The Other Side of Heaven was delayed until after The Princess Diaries opened, in the hope its anticipated success would boost this film.
- The film was shot on location in Auckland and on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, with all the filming equipment and supplies arriving by boat and the island scenes completed in two months; rain often threatened the shoot, though Davis claimed his prayers delayed much of it.
