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Just like Heaven (2005)

Director: Mark Waters

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Movie review

From Time Out London

There’s a distinctly ’80s feel to this romantic comedy – its set-up recalls films like ‘Ghost’ and ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’, and it’s even named after a song by The Cure, versions of which bookend the film. Reese Witherspoon is Elizabeth, a busy doctor who has a car crash. Months later, lonely David (Mark Ruffalo) rents her apartment, and is startled to share it with Elizabeth’s ghostly apparition. Elizabeth herself thought she was alive and well until she started walking through walls, so David must help her investigate a mystery that we can decode within minutes. Not much tension, then, but there’s chemistry between the pair as they banter their way towards an inevitable romance. Waters brings a welcome touch of gallows humour, although his tendency to abandon it in favour of sentiment makes ‘Just Like Heaven’ a guilty pleasure rather than a match for his darker work like ‘Mean Girls’. Let’s just say fans of Waters’ ‘Freaky Friday’ remake can consider it a return to form.

Author: AS 2005-12-19 15:39:11

Time Out London Issue 1844: December 21 2005 - January 4 2006