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September 27, 2005
Just Like Heaven is more like just wasting time
Well, where to start? I guess a good a place as any is to begin by saying that it was better than Sweet Home Alabama, but either way this movie pushes the envelope. But then, when has a movie that is part romantic comedy, part ghost story and all dumb, ever had chance of adding up to little more than a FOX Sunday afternoon movie? Unless you need to look like a sensitive sweetheart to your significant other, you probably shouldn’t waste your time. That being said, lets take a look at the synopsis.
Young Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon) is a successful yuppie doctor about to go out on a hot date after a 26+ hour shift. “She must be some sort of untiring Greek god” an equally-impressed-as-I reader might say, and her godliness may have gone unchallenged if not for almost immediately being hit by a large truck. This only further confirmed my position that cell phones and driving don’t mix, especially on a rainy night. Fast-forward and we see that the male protagonist, David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo) has turned into, after his own personal tragedy, a catatonic Neanderthal who chooses to move into poor Elizabeth’s former apartment which is super decked out, Pottery Barn style.
Needless to say, Elizabeth is not pleased with this guest and the rest is history. I don’t need to say too much to let you know what happens, but I trust that you can guess they fall in love. The next 45 minutes, I like to call it filler, involve watching David flounce about San Francisco decked out in Banana Republic gear while being annoyed by an “AM radio that won’t get out of [his] head”. Needless to say, the situational comedy is totaly groundbreaking. It was also somewhere in this desolace that it dawned on me that Saved by the Bell:The New Class as Ghost:Something Like Heaven. Really, this is just Ghost for a younger generation, but with a lamer soundtrack and an even more annoying song. Anyone who’s seen Ghost should know what I mean by annoying song.
Being the spiteful writer I am however, I’ll close with this: she’s not a ghost; you read that right, she’s not even dead. It isn’t even that big of a surprise, in fact, there are a million coincidences that not only help tie everything together, but also telegraph everything so clearly that unless you’re surprised by the lame twists in M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, you’ll be wishing he would just hurry up and die so they could be happily ever after somewhere off screen.
Some come Friday night, start holding your breath for Heath Ledger’s next movie Brokeback Mountain. What could be better than a movie starring Heath Ledger as a Wyoming sheep herder?
Posted by msveum at September 27, 2005 12:09 PM
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