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Printer-Friendly ModeRuffalo makes ghost love feel Just Like Heaven
September 19, 2005 —
Besides horror, romantic comedy is the movie genre most likely to deliver a waste of ninety minutes to the big screen. Therefore, I kept my expectations reasonably low while walking into Just Like Heaven. After all, this is the movie that makes sure to mention in its trailer that Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jon Heder, is one of the stars, certainly an attempt to draw more movie-goers while capitalizing on the success of Napoleon.
But I must admit I left the theater pleasantly surprised with Just Like Heaven. The movie had something that most other romantic comedies do not - Mark Ruffalo. I must say, when given the chance, this guy can carry a movie. Here, Ruffalo is David Abbott, a landscape architect looking for a new apartment. When he finally finds a suitable place, he soon realizes he is not alone. In fact, he is living with the most attractive ghost I have ever seen. The ghost is actually the spirit of Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon), a woman who suffered an unfortunate accident on her way home from work at a hospital in San Francisco. She starts following David and asking him why he is living in her apartment, and of course the comedic exploits begin.
But the funny thing is that whenever Ruffalo and Witherspoon share the screen, the movie actually is funny. It's certainly not off-the-wall hilarious, but it's funny in a way that is not cheesy or lame; the jokes don't feel forced like they do in most romantic comedies. And even more surprising is that Heder contributes very little to the movie's humor. Heck, Grounded For Life star Donal Logue offers up more laughs than Heder. But that's okay, because this movie isn't meant to be about the comedy.
That must mean that this movie is about the romance, right? Well, yes and no. Certainly there is that typical romantic comedy feel to this movie, but the real focus is on David and Elizabeth solving the mystery of her sudden appearance in the spirit world - the two just happen to develop feelings for each other along the way. Fortunately, there is that important theatrical chemistry between Ruffalo and Witherspoon that makes the pair enjoyable to watch and easy to like.
And the story is fairly original as well, giving Just Like Heaven yet another advantage over most romantic comedies. It avoids a Sleepless in Seattle style plotline, where two lonely thirty-somethings almost, but not quite, run into each other for an hour and fifteen minutes, or spend that time annoying each other to the point where the audience thinks they won't get together, which of course they will. Instead, Just Like Heaven gives its characters the entire movie to work together toward a common goal, with a romance that builds naturally - well, natural as it gets for a man and a ghost.
There are some slight plot twists with this film, though nothing too shocking, that actually work - they don't make the movie any less satisfying like some of the more outrageous plot twists that show up in nearly all movies these days. Really, there isn't anything that could have been done differently to make Just Like Heaven a better film. For me, Mark Ruffalo was all it needed to be worth seeing. The fact that it was consistently entertaining only makes it worth seeing again.