JUST LIKE HEAVEN

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sexual content, brief nudity

Rated:

Every once in awhile a really touching movie comes along. These films are extremely rare but manage to captivate the heart of the audience while tugging a few tears. Just Like Heaven is such a film. It has faults, but in the larger perspective is well worth viewing.

With barely a stop for coffee in the nurse's station, Dr. Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon) practically lives in the hospital. Saving lives is her calling and she barely has time to socialize with people not hooked up to an IV tube. Running late for a blind date her sister has arranged, Elizabeth sees one last patient, hops into her car ... and is hit by a semi plowing down the wrong side of the street. Several months later, her apartment is up for rent. Alcoholic David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo) likes the couch, so he decides to take up the bi-monthly lease. He's not there more than one evening before he makes a ring on the mahogany coffee table ... and encounters a ghost. Elizabeth believes he's invading her apartment and wants him to leave. Then she disappears. 

His psychologist best friend (Donal Logue) believes he's hallucinating. The local psychic bookshop clerk (Jon Heder) believes that he's encountering a ghost. Armed with numerous volumes on the subject, David does everything within his power to cast her out of the apartment. Nothing works, and no one else can see Elizabeth, who, once she becomes convinced that she's not corporeal, wants to find out what happened. She has no memories of her life before, and this leads them on a search to discern the truth. But the truth may not be what either one of them wanted to hear. Elizabeth's time is limited and David just may be falling in love with her.

Movies about friendly ghosts haunting humans have always been popular. Look at the success of the classic The Ghost & Mrs. Meur or the more recent tearjerker simply entitled Ghost. Just Like Heaven has something on them ... its heroine is not a ghost. I cannot go further without revealing plot twists, but there's nothing spiritually disconcerting about her state. The chemistry between the leads is very plausible and sweet. You can believe they're actually falling in love. There are many adorable moments, such as David retrieving a coaster for his drink after being reprimanded for ruining her furniture, or having to take a shower in swimming trunks because he never knows when she might appear. There was something magical about the film I couldn't quite put my finger on, but it leaves the audience with a warm, contented feeling.

Language is fairly mild, but does include one abuse of Jesus' name. Violence is limited to a single punch to the jaw of an attending physician. A shrink flips Elizabeth the bird. There's brief nonsexual backside nudity of an elderly patient in the hospital. The girl in the apartment downstairs is sexually aggressive. She manipulates David into letting her into his flat, then vanishes into the bathroom (wearing a low-cut pair of jeans that show off the top of her beaded thong) and tosses her clothes into the hall. She makes an appearance in a towel asking him to have some fun with her, then lets the towel drop (we see her bare back). Elizabeth encourages him to go for it, but he kicks the woman out of his apartment. Their inquiries turn up a married man having an affair with a blonde; Elizabeth wonders if she was a "slut."

Darryl never comes right out and claims to be psychic, but is able to discern the presence of Elizabeth and talks about her "aura." David purchases books in an occult bookstore, and tries calling her spirit to him with a silly rhyme while waving around a candle. (She appears only after he threatens harm to her pristine coffee table.) David tries several things to de-ghost his apartment -- a Catholic priest flinging holy water at an unseen target, Asian women chanting and wandering around with burning pieces of paper, and local "Ghostbusters" that intend to "flush" the ghost down the toilet. Elizabeth briefly possesses David to prevent him from drinking. Had the movie not been a romantic comedy (and it is funny) I would be more concerned, but everything was handled in a lighthearted manner that never placed faith in communication with the dead. 

While it's true that some of these things are no laughing matter, the film also provided good moral lessons about having time for people, coming to grips with who you are, cherishing what time you have on earth, and learning to recover from loss. David eventually gives up drinking. There's also a strong pro-life message concerning patients on life support. It's not perfect, but nearly lives up to the title of Just Like Heaven.