FILM: Just Like Heaven

DIRECTOR: Mark Waters

YEAR: 2005

WATCHED ON: Netflix

DATE WATCHED: 14-Feb-2024

FIRST VIEWING: No

SPOILERS AHEAD: Yes

This was a film that my little sister had on DVD. I borrowed it from her more than once to watch. I like it. Its probably classed as a chickflick because its an inoffensive romance film. No strong language, no violence, no sexy scenes. Its a nice film.

Mark Ruffalo is the male star who moves into a nice flat in San Francisco. When I was younger I never actually looked at the set, but as an adult. A flat like that? That size? In San Fransisco with those views? That’s gonna set you back a few $$$. And he moves in on his own. Dude is obviously loaded. He plays a very depressed guy who just seems to sit and drink beer at nights. All seems fine but then he starts to see a ghost.

Reese Witherspoon plays the female lead who works too much. That is how she is introduced. She’s a doctor who is close to burning out and then on the way to a date - which she is late for - she’s in a car crash. She plays the ghost. In a not so shocking reveal, it emerges that Mark Ruffalo is living in her flat.

Theres not much to say about the plot. It’s pretty straight forward, Mark Ruffalo is the only person who can see Reese Witherspoon, and then it turns out she’s not actually dead, but is in a coma. But she’s still a ghost. Or at least having an out-of-body experience. And they fall in love.

Not all too much else seems to happen. Mark Ruffalo investigates it a little bit and as one point visits a paranormal book store where Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) has a small part in the film before he disappeared. That’s actually a bit nasty. I think he went into voice work or something. Producing maybe. I liked Napoleon Dynamite and Blades of Glory is excellent. I hope he’s okay.

Yeah, Just Like Heaven. A supernatural love story thats wrapped up pretty solidly. It was made before Netflix was shitting out films like this every week, and it has a charm of its own. Its a lighthearted, harmless movie that fit of tone of sitting down to relax at night on Valentines Day.