Just Like Heaven - Dayton Daily News movie review

'Just Like Heaven': Mix of comedy, romance stands a 'ghost' of a chance

By DAVE LARSEN
Dayton Daily News

David Abbott is seeing someone.

Unfortunately, he's the only one who can see her at all.

Having sublet a furnished San Francisco apartment with a great view and comfortable couch, David finds himself unexpectedly sharing it with the previous tenant, Elizabeth Masterson — "a little blonde control freak" who isn't actually there in a physical sense.

DreamWorks SKG

'Just Like Heaven'

B-

Director: Mark S. Waters
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Donal Logue, Dina Waters, Ben Shenkman
Run time: 95 minutes
Release date: September 16, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual content.
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Just Like Heaven is a romantic comedy with a supernatural twist, about two disconnected souls who share a connection that transcends earthly bounds.

Adapted from the bestselling novel If Only It Were True, by French author Marc Levy, the film is directed by Mark Waters, whose hit comedies include Mean Girls and Freaky Friday. It plays its fantasy scenario for laughs but aims more squarely for the heart.

The result is an uneven mix of romantic comedy and drama that often favors melancholy over mirth.

That's not to say that Just Like Heaven isn't quite funny at times. The film also benefits from likable leads Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. It's just that the movie has some flat stretches and feels a bit long, even at only 95 minutes.

In addition, Just Like Heaven bears more than a ghostly resemblance to Ghost, All of Me and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, among other such otherworldly romances.

Elizabeth (Witherspoon), an overachieving doctor at a San Francisco hospital, has no life beyond her work. Driving home in the rain after a 26-hour shift, she is met head-on by a fast-moving truck.

David (Ruffalo) is a hard-drinking loner who sleepwalks through life. He is haunted by his past — and also by Elizabeth. She appears in spectral form telling him to get out of her apartment — or, at the very least, to use a coaster under his beer on her coffee table.

Elizabeth refuses to believe that she is dead, but she has no memory of who she is or how she ended up in this ethereal state. She enlists David to help her solve the mystery, which leads to a plot twist that raises the dramatic stakes and brings the movie to life, so to speak.

Just Like Heaven never fully takes wing, but it clears most of its rough patches thanks to light-hearted humor and Witherspoon's charm.

The solid supporting cast includes Donal Logue, Dina Waters and Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder.

Given the lack of romantic comedies in recent months and the film's emotional appeal, it's likely that many women will soon be seeing Elizabeth, too.