Some Kind of Heaven

If I am about thirty-four and a half years old, that means that I have roughly been on this Earth for 413 months. Of those 413 months, twelve of them have been spent visiting and even at times living in The Villages. The Villages is the largest retirement community in the country, with well over a hundred thousand retirees living in this retirement fairyland in the middle of Florida. A person in his thirties certainly stands out, especially if he's driving a golf cart. But drive one I did during periods of house sitting, visiting, and even staying for several months in between contracts. As a U.S. citizen living abroad, I still use my parents' address in The Villages as my permanent residence, and I often catch myself whispering to whoever needs my address (the bank teller or the pharmacist, for example) that "I really don't live here."

You also might have heard of The Villages. Perhaps you've heard the dirty rumor that The Villages has the highest STD rate in the country, which was basically debunked a few years ago by villages-news.com but might forever be in the public's imagination thanks to a 2009 article in the New York Post that included gossip about a couple getting caught having sex in their golf cart, rumors of a black market for Viagra, and cops talking about breaking up men jousting with their canes to fight over women. You most certainly heard of The Villages if you were following last year's presidential election, thanks to constant media coverage of the community's supposed disappointment in Donald Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, with articles from Business Insider, New York magazine, the Associated Press, NBC, USA Today, and many others. (At any rate, Trump won Florida 51 to 48, winning almost seventy percent—practically identical to his 2016 result—of Sumpter County, where most of The Villages is.) Or maybe you just have an older relative who escaped the cold of northern states and has found their own slice of heaven in Florida. With all this awareness of The Villages, it was inevitable that some kind of film would be made about it. It's very fortunate for moviegoers that the unavoidable film was in capable hands. 

With all that you have likely heard of this unique part of the country, there is almost nothing I can tell you about The Villages that you won't learn in the new documentary titled Some Kind of Heaven. Directed by Lance Oppenheim (a Floridian making his directorial debut here) and produced by Darren Aronofsky, this film will show you all the good, bad, and ugly of a community self-described as "Florida's friendliest hometown." "You come here to live," one resident says. "You don't come here to pass away." Within the first sequences of the documentary, you'll see how The Villages offers something for everyone—synchronized swimming, rowing, pickleball, and golf courses aplenty are just some of the activities available for residents. There's even a club for people named Elaine. The documentary, however, is not as concerned with the almost idiosyncratic vibe there but instead four residents: a married couple named Anne and Reggie, a widow named Barbara, and a bachelor named Dennis. 

Barbara is the most normal of the four. She's from Boston, a place she desperately wants to return to. Her husband passed away, and she's working full time at a job she doesn't particularly like. She tells the interviewer that her time in The Villages "hasn't been the fantasyland" she hoped it would be, right before she bursts into face-saving laughter as her dog starts humping the cat. Audience members will certainly feel for a person like Barbara and others who have not found the happiness they thought they would find there, like Dennis, who lives in a van and illegally parks for the night on Villages property. He fully states that his intention is to find a wealthy woman whom he can move in with. Much of Anne's story focuses on her crumbling marriage to Reggie, a very peculiar individual struggling with addiction to THC. Some of these characters' paths take some unexpected turns, especially when the law gets involved.   

During the times I housesat for my parents in The Villages, I usually would go outside only for things like going to see a movie or getting groceries. I avoided everything else at all cost, and other than doctor appointments, there was little else I found in common with the permanent residents (or semi-permanent ones coined "snow birds," those who retreat to northern states during the miserably hot and humid summers). I've seen enough of The Villages—with its humidity, omnipresent golf courses, and deep-red conservatism—to know that it's not for me, and it never will be (even forty years from now). Knowing The Villages so well might have impacted how I responded to Some Kind of Heaven, and I'm not sure if it helped or hurt my enjoyment of the film. The target audience therefore is people who have never been there or even heard of it. Actual Villagers will probably be wondering why they've bothered to watch a movie that shows them their daily experiences, although the film's occasional melancholy likely preaches to the choir that is those who have moved there and haven't found the paradise they were hoping for.

Other residents of The Villages—the people who've truly fallen in love with this wonderland in a country they don't recognize anymore—might be insulted. True, some of the film's perspective is predictably smug, with an attitude that shouts "look at all these old geezers running around here!" Yet much of Some Kind of Heaven is equal parts inquisitive and informative, as many great documentaries are. And viewers will likely find themselves rooting for the four Villagers we follow (especially Barbara), even when they do foolish things. Much acclaim should be given to Oppenheim for channeling a style that embraces surrealism while being humanist at the same time. There isn't much of a thesis in this documentary, but it really shines when focusing on the four characters. Perhaps it was easy for Oppenheim to get these folks to spill the beans so easily; older people, after all, are more trusting than younger people. Hopefully their children and grandchildren won't be too upset at him.