‘Seven in Heaven’ is an engaging mind trip that forgets to deliver a payoff (Movie review)

“Seven in Heaven” was an impulsive watch for me. The premise sounded neat and it was right there on Netflix so I gave it a chance. The plot is pretty basic, but interesting: Two kids go into a closet for a game of Seven Minutes in Heaven. When they come out, the whole world seems to have changed. Kind of like a different timeline, similar to “Back to the Future Part II” when Marty ends up in the alternate version of Hill Valley.

In this new world, main character Jude (Travis Tope) is accused of stabbing and killing someone. The whole town is searching for him, so it is a very dangerous place. The remainder of the movie consists of Jude and June (Haley Ramm), the girl from the closet game, trying to avoid everyone who is after them, including the police, and figure out how to get back home.

Tope and Ramm do well enough. I recognized Tope from the Netflix series “American Vandal” Season 2, and Ramm as a young Jean Grey from “X-Men: The Last Stand.” They are believable and have decent chemistry.

The problem with this film, much like “mother!” (which I reviewed last week at RFMC), is that there is no payoff. We spend an hour and a half with these kids, going through the experiences they do, trying to understand what is going, but we never find out why. The explanation of what the closet is, or why they are transported to this other reality, is never given.

“Seven in Heaven” is borderline on being worth a watch or not. It kept my interest, and I enjoyed the plot, but it is a letdown at the end.

My rating: