Editing Heaven Can Wait (1978 film) (section)

===Critical response===
On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads "A throwback to the high-gloss screwball comedies of the 1940s, ''Heaven Can Wait'' beguiles with seamless production values and great comic relief from Charles Grodin and Dyan Cannon."<ref name="RT">{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1009427-heaven_can_wait/#contentReviews|title=Heaven Can Wait (1978)|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|date=28 June 1978 |access-date=February 2, 2024}}</ref> Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/heaven-can-wait|title=Heaven Can Wait reviews|work=[[Metacritic]]|access-date=January 24, 2018}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] gave the film three out of four and called it "the kind of upbeat screwball comedy Hollywood used to do smoothly and well".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/heaven-can-wait-1978 |title=Heaven Can Wait |last=Ebert |first=Roger |website=[[RogerEbert.com]] |access-date=December 15, 2018 }}</ref> Gene Siskel gave the film three-and-a-half out of four and declared it "a delightful film that is both surprisingly fresh and old-fashioned".<ref>Siskel, Gene (June 30, 1978). "'Heaven Can Wait' recalls joy of yesterday's films". ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''. Section 3, p. 3.</ref> [[Vincent Canby]] of ''The New York Times'' wrote that the film "hasn't much personality of its own. Instead, it has a kind of earnest cheerfulness that is sometimes most winning. Mr. Beatty and Miss Christie are performers who bring to their roles the easy sort of gravity that establishes characters of import, no matter how simply they are drawn in the script."<ref>{{cite news|last=Canby|first=Vincent|date=June 28, 1978|title=A Film by Beatty|work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/06/28/110879033.html?pageNumber=61|page=C17|access-date=December 1, 2024|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Charles Champlin of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that "Beatty and his accomplices have brought it off, with only minor patches of turbulence. The script has been expertly contemporized."<ref>Champlin, Charles (June 27, 1978). "Here Comes Mr. Beatty". ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. Part IV, p. 1.</ref> Gary Arnold of ''The Washington Post'' wrote "''Heaven Can Wait'' is easily the most appealing new American movie on the market. It manages to preserve much of the charm and romantic fantasy that worked for its predecessor, the 1941 crowd-pleaser ''Here Comes Mr. Jordan'', while freshening up some of the settings and details and tailoring the roles to a different cast."<ref>Arnold, Gary (June 28, 1978). "Here Comes a Spirited Fantasy". ''[[The Washington Post]]''. E1.</ref> [[Penelope Gilliatt]] of ''The New Yorker'' praised the script as "sometimes both loopy and brainy", but asked "good grief, what is all this braininess and talent doing in a remake of a Harry Segall play that has no relation to the real world we come out into from the cinema? One can see why there were films about transmigration and reincarnation during the war, but not now."<ref>Gilliatt, Penelope (July 10, 1978). "The Current Cinema". ''[[The New Yorker]]''. 84–85.</ref>