A tiny town in New Mexico is turned upside down when the image of Christ appears - burned onto a tortilla - in the community's only restaurant, "Tortilla Heaven." Chaos ensues among the townfolk.
Tortilla Heaven grossed $105,401 in the United States.[2][3]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of 12 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.5/10.[4]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 22 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[5]
Michael Ordoña of the Los Angeles Times stated, "The experience of watching Tortilla Heaven is like a frozen smile: The film and its makers simply try too hard. Director and co-writer Judy Hecht Dumontet can't stop "helping" with overactive editing and scoring, such as tinkling bells every time the sacred tortilla is shown early on."[6]
Justin Chang of Variety wrote, "As flat as a tortilla and considerably less nourishing, Tortilla Heaven cooks up a muddled religio-comic fable" and "Pic's almost exclusively Latino and Native American cast is mostly reduced to playing folksy caricatures, feverishly crossing themselves and peppering their Mexican-accented English with the odd exclamation in Spanish."[1]
Tim Grierson of LA Weekly stated, "If it was simply a jokey commentary on the dangers of greed and religious fervor, Tortilla Heaven would be forgivable. But Hecht Dumontet deserves special derision for her hypocritical condescension toward Falfúrrias' simple-folk caricatures, rendering them as God-fearing dolts worthy of scorn until the patronizing finale, which tries for a spiritual uplift that's as disingenuous as it is incompetently executed."[7]
Brandon Fibbs of Christianity Today wrote, "While a fable is an amusing and compelling way to relate a story with a serious point, Tortilla Heaven at times undermines its message by stretching the comedy to its limits" and "For all of its flaws and shortcomings, Tortilla Heaven can't help but be charming and undeniably entertaining. The film's heart is always in the right place."[8]
Rory L. Aronsky of Film Threat wrote, "Oh how I wanted to like Tortilla Heaven. Really like it. Saturday-afternoon-movie like it." However, he also opined, "It's disappointing, because not only does George Lopez and many of the actors deserve a little better (Lopez, among others, is grossly underused), but Chuy Chavez's vivid cinematography makes a more extensive walk around the town seem very attractive."[9]
