"Just Like Heaven," starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo and directed by Mark Waters of "Mean Girls" fame, has a perfect mix of laughs, surprises, twists and "aww" moments to keep audiences entertained.
Although the film has been classified as a "chick flick," Jon Heder's comedic one-liners provide enough to keep boyfriends and husbands awake.
The romantic comedy, based on the best-selling novel by Marc Levy, addresses love, spirituality, and above all, fate.
Witherspoon plays Elizabeth Masterson, an overachieving, workaholic doctor that puts her patients and the hospital before her personal life. She spends her days saving lives - not worrying about her nonexistent love life.
Elizabeth is in a car crash after a 28-hour shift at work. Contrary to what the previews have led audiences to believe, this crash does not claim her life. Instead, the rest of the film deals with trying to reconnect her lively spirit with her comatose body.
Ruffalo plays David Abbott, a man left with little spirit after his wife dies. Fate begins to play a large role in the film while David is out apartment hunting. An ad for an apartment, which turns out to belong to Elizabeth, keeps finding its way back to David. He falls in love with the view of San Francisco and the comfortable couch. David spends most of his time on the couch, detached from reality and drinking Miller Lite.
Elizabeth's spirit pays David a few visits. First showing up in the living room, and then the bathroom mirror.
David visits a bookstore specializing in folklore and occults hoping to find some answers. Enter Jon Heder, aka Napoleon Dynamite, as Darryl, an employee at the bookstore and spiritual communicator.
Heder provides most of the laughs in the film. Continuing with the success of Napoleon, Heder's role as Darryl comes complete with lines such as, "Righteous" sprinkled throughout the film. The lines are delivered with his slow drawl and dry delivery that could make just about anyone laugh.
The harder David tries to make Elizabeth leave so that he can return to his Miller Lite, the closer their characters become. In reality, they are more alike than they had imagined, and fate should have brought them together earlier.
That bout with fate provides one of the most interesting twists in the film, so therefore it will not be revealed here.
Ruffalo and Witherspoon have excellent chemistry and are believable as kindred spirits.
The film brought in $16.4 million this past week, debuting at No. 1 on the box office charts.
"Just Like Heaven" is in theatres now.
