DELIVERING MILO

Birth takes a holiday in this winning comedy-fantasy. Up in heaven, where souls wait to be born, Milo has the time of his, er, non-life, playing cards with attendant angels and assuring nervous young souls that everything's going to be all right. But when it comes to be Milo's turn to Go Into the Light, he himself loses his nerve and refuses to leave his blissful celestial existence behind for a world of uncertainty. This is unheard of, and all heaven is soon in an uproar. Down on Earth Milo's destined birth mother Elizabeth (Bridget Fonda) duly goes into labor ? then stops, mysteriously, as do pregnant women everywhere. The whole natural process will move forward again only if Milo sincerely states, “I want to be born.” The task of convincing him that life is worth living falls to Elmore (Albert Finney), a raffish soul, late of the New York City that would have been Milo's hometown. Elmore is granted extraordinary leave from limbo to take the stubborn Milo down on a tour of Manhattan and its environs, to show the boy how exhilarating existence in the metropolis can be. But, among the noise, the crowds, disturbing art, too much ice cream and the horrors of public restrooms, the strategy seems to backfire. Plus, an easily distracted Elmore has an agenda (and a past) of his own that keeps getting in the way of the crucial midnight deadline.