Just Like Heaven
April 2006 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, Mryna Loy and Richard Powell, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere -- great romantic couples in cinema history. For a romantic comedy to work, we must like the couple and each member of it. We have to want these people to be together, or the thing just won’t work. Their characters must be written to be likable and the actors must then infuse those characters with charisma and chemistry.

Add to the list of romantic couples Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. Each is immediately likable. You would have them over for dinner in a heartbeat. Moreover, they play well together. Even if they don’t, we know from the beginning of this charming movie that they are meant to be together. And we root for them to overcome the odds that threaten to keep them apart. In a movie that broadcasts its plot in advance, the utter charm of these actors keeps us interested not as much in what will happen as in how it will happen.

Witherspoon plays Elizabeth, a doctor who gives her all to her patients and neglects herself (though she does manage to stay ravishingly beautiful!). On her way to a dinner where a friend has set her up with a blind date, she is involved in an accident. She ends up in a coma and is put on life support. Ruffalo is David, an out of work landscaper who has become disillusioned with life after his wife’s sudden death. He rents Elizabeth’s apartment, which has gone on the market since no one thinks she will ever need it again. As he is settling in, Elizabeth’s spirit appears to him. Only he can see her, which makes for some amusing comic sequences, especially one in a bar where she tries to stop him from drinking. They eventually fall in love. Will she become corporal so they can finally kiss each other? You bet, but it is worked out in a charming and amusing way.

The DVD picture is bright most of the time and well focused, with rich and natural colors. There are some beautiful shots of San Francisco, where the film is set, and the interiors are not shadowy. Little is visually murky in this movie. The soundtrack is crisp and clean. The music is balanced well with the Foley effects and the dialogue. It seems that one can hear everything necessary without a bit of strain. It all sounds very natural.

The extras are lame. There’s a backslapping production featurette, a "meet the cast" featurette, a not-so-funny gag reel, and deleted scenes. One of those is an alternate ending. We can be happy it was ditched. There is also a genial if not very revealing commentary from director Mark Waters along with screenwriter Bruce Green and Daryn Okada, director of photography.

But these extras are negligible. It is Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo that make this one of the sweetest and most enjoyable romantic comedies to be released in a long time.

• Go Back