Death is a touchy subject for me. On one hand, it fascinates me, but it also scares the living daylights out of me. Movies that deal with death (not actions movies where people just die) really strike a chord with me, leaving me wondering about my own demise from this world.
Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon), a well meaning but uptight doctor who puts her work ahead of her life, has to figure out what unfinished business her spirit has to do. This leads her to meet David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo), an angry loner slob who subletted out her apartment and doesn't want to interact with anyone since the death of his wife. The two butt heads at first, but are ablet o be there for each other and cancel out their lonliness. There's only one thing that prevents them from being together, but its a pretty huge conundrum.
This was a pretty original idea (as much as ideas in Hollywood can be original) that mixes parts of "Ghost" with a romantic comedy with director Mark Water putting his own twist on twist on things. There were a few parts that were stupid and totally unbelievable, forcing me to cringe and want to slap writers Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon for putting such crap to an otherwise decent script. There is teh theme of being artificially left alive, which I'm sure is stil present in the minds of most Americans after the Terry Schiavo incident that turned the country upside down.
Witherspoon did a wodnerful job of being a well meaning character, but a flawed one. The acting is really good here. Ruffalo made a believable loner, though I think he over-did it at times. The use of lighting was also well done. There would be ascene full of sun shine that reminded me of spirits and the great white light, but tehy were followed by a rather dark scene.
This film is good enough to make me disregard the cheesy scenes that made me want to rip up the screen. Its a sweet film that will be good for a date and a thought provoking conversation afterwards.
Written by: RF