The Discovery of Heaven

God gives up on humanity and decides to take back the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written. He hands the job to an angel. The angel knows a child has to be born for this and starts steering the lives of three people: Max the astronomer, Onno the linguist, and Ada, the woman both of them love. Over the years everything that looks like coincidence has in fact been arranged. The source is Harry Mulisch's novel of the same name, counted among the best known books in Dutch literature. The film was directed by the actor Jeroen Krabbé, who is also in the cast. Stephen Fry plays Onno and Greg Wise plays Max. Two hours and seven minutes. The mould is fantastical drama, but the film is really about friendship, betrayal and how much of his own life a person chooses. The story cannot quite carry the novel's density and gets caught between its two layers.