‘Closest Thing to Heaven’ Weaves 5 Southern Tales

Dorne Pentes’ “The Closest Thing to Heaven” is a likable example of regional filmmaking, but its vignettes, most of which are effective in themselves, don’t have much punch collectively because the film veers between the painfully real and the overly cute. Its laid-back, down-home quality most likely plays better, well, down home, which in this case happens to be Charlotte, N.C. “Closest” meanders too much for its own good, and its unctuous, voluble narrator (Michael Mattison) swiftly grows tedious.

In the space of 96 minutes, Pentes cuts back and forth between five stories, all of which take place on a warm Sunday. There’s a young preacher (Sidney Horton) falling into an affair with an unhappy member (Maria Howell) of his flock, only to end up trying to heal her abusive husband (Mike Harding).

A weary, single mother (Katherine Goforth) who has missed her bus finds herself prey to a cocky pickup artist (Carl McIntyre), whose line of patter is not remotely as cool and sophisticated as he thinks it is--but who underneath is not a bad guy.

Meanwhile, two siblings, both middle-aged and overweight (Jill Bloede, Mykle Mariette) and both experiencing the breakup of their marriages, independently converge on the home of their elderly mother, seeking solace. Not so far away, the elderly proprietor (Ed Grady) of a fast-food restaurant is coming unstuck with the advent of senile dementia, leaving his overworked daughter (Gina Stewart) and son (Tim Grant) to cope with heavy Sunday business.

Then there are two inept would-be crooks (Tim Parati, Mike Corrington), whose antics the picture could do without. Pentes gets decent or better performances from most all concerned, and he has created a film with genuine feelings. But even with a boost from its bluegrass score, it is definitely a minor outing.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: some strong language, adult situations.

‘The Closest Thing to Heaven’

Sidney Horton: RC

Katherine Goforth: Kat

Carl McIntyre: Lester

Ed Grady: George

Gina Stewart: Zoe

A World Artists release of a Kittypix/Silver Hammer Studios/North Carolina Film Foundation presentation. Writer-director Dorne Pentes. Producer Wendy Fishman. Cinematographer Mick McNeely. Editor E. Robert Abroms. Music Blue Mountain. Art director Jim Gloster. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes.

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* Exclusively at Laemmle’s Grande 4-Plex, 345 S. Figueroa St., downtown, (213) 617-0268.