Just Like Heaven
Studio: DreamWorks SKG
Rated: PG-13
Website: http://www.justlikeheaven-themovie.com/
Release Date: 2005-09-16
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Donal Logue, Dina Waters, Ben Shenkman
Director: Mark S. Waters
Screenwriter: Peter Tolan, Leslie Dixon
WorkNameSort: Just Like Heaven
Our Rating: 1.00
On the basis of the ad campaign, one might expect nothing worse than a gender-reversed variant of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir for a new generation. And that’s basically what Just Like Heaven is for its first half, with auto-crash victim Reese Witherspoon hovering around her apartment and lobbing I-was-here-first barbs at slovenly/soulful new inhabitant Mark Ruffalo. But then we discover what her real affliction is hint: It’s not death per se and the movie becomes (swear to God!) a marshmallow riff on the Terri Schiavo story, albeit framed in a way that raises the possibility of a “happy” ending. The sobbing Schindler surrogates in the audience get to bite their nails down to the quick as misguided family members (prodded by irresponsible doctors, natch) move toward terminating a “life” that still has so much sweetness in store. Looks like it’s up to true love to magically save the day! Not even the basest demands of avarice can explain why a studio would refrain from shelving a film that’s been rendered so sadly inappropriate by real-world events, but DreamWorks has to be hoping that, since we’ve now moved on to another national crisis, we will conveniently forget to be scandalized. As Frank Zappa used to say, may their shit come to life and kiss them.
This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2005.