Mathieu Denis’ The Cost of Heaven is under-paced but nonetheless insightful. Nacer Belkacem (Samir Guesmi) is a man who feels he has outgrown his station in life and simply wants more. He sends his children to a private school he cannot afford and similarly covets out-of-reach luxury objects. Nacer is a man dead-set on removing his family from the setting of the public—insisting instead that for his children’s success they must rub shoulders with members of the Quebecois elite in the private world of the rich. However, what suddenly effects this change in him remains frustratingly hidden, un-suturing the viewer from the world of the film.

The Cost of Heaven is unnecessarily languid in its progression, but at times rather contemplative. Each character in the film is portrayed in a very humanistic light—both the good faith actors and the bad. Sadly, that kind of story-telling leaves very little room for analysis, as the contradictions of the characters come pre-packaged. There is, though, one revelatory moment in The Cost of Heaven, and it is a surprising commentary on cryptocurrency.

When Nacer, in his desperation for cash, kidnaps the child heir of the Novak fortune, he demands that the ransom be paid in Bitcoin. It is refreshing to see cryptocurrency, which is so often presented as some kind of financial messiah, presented as a means for crime. Here Denis makes a very prudent point, as the anonymity associated with the movements of cryptocurrency make it the perfect fulcrum upon which large scale financial fraud and money laundering can rest. Although The Cost of Heaven has a tendency to ramble, Guesmi’s tortured performance is strong enough to lead one to the small revelatory kernels along the way.

Feature Image: courtesy of TIFF.