A window on a fascinatingly weird place: Some Kind of Heaven reviewed

Some Kind of Heaven is a documentary set in The Villages, Florida, which is often described as a ‘Disneyland for retirees’ — it, too, has its own faux-historical town centre — and is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in America. (Current pop: 130,000.) The vibe is, I would say, cruise ship, but with golf. Hell, in other words, unless, that is, I’m going to be left to rot in a nursing home, in which case: I can learn golf!

This is a film by Lance Oppenheim, who lived in The Villages for several months. It is a fascinatingly weird place and the film is worth seeing if only to get a sense of that. It is self-contained, with its own (uniform) houses plus banks and cinemas and restaurants and churches, and there are more than 3,000 clubs you can join. You could, for instance, become a member of the synchronised-golf cart team (I saw this with my own eyes). But is it the utopia it seems? Or is it a kind of Pleasantville?

There are more than 3,000 clubs. You could, for instance, become a member of the synchronised-golf cart team

Oppenheim doesn’t come at any of this head-on. Instead, it’s explored through the lives of four residents. There is Barbara, a shy widow whose Yorkshire terrier is not similarly shy (he brazenly humps the cat at her feet). There is Anne and Reggie, who have been married for 47 years, and now Reggie seems to be suffering from a mental collapse. He dresses in sheets, chants, believes he’s been reincarnated, takes mind-altering drugs and has boundary issues. ‘I’m going to jack off, so don’t come in here,’ he tells Anne. And also there’s Dennis, an 81-year-old gigolo — his business card reads: ‘celebrity handyman and companion for hire’ — who isn’t a resident.