Just like Heaven (film)

Just Like Heaven
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mark Waters
Produced by	Walter F. Parkes Laurie MacDonald
Written by	Marc Levy (novel) Peter Tolan Leslie Dixon
Starring	Reese Witherspoon Mark Ruffalo Donal Logue Jon Heder Dina Spybey Ivana Miličević Ben Shenkman Rosalind Chao Caroline Aaron Ron Canada
Music by	Rolfe Kent
Cinematography	Daryn Okada
Edited by	Bruce Green
Distributed by	DreamWorks Pictures
Release dates	September 16, 2005 (2005-09-16) (US)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$58 million
Box office	$102,854,431[1]

Just Like Heaven is an American romantic comedy fantasy film released on September 16, 2005, in the United States and Canada. Set in San Francisco, it was directed by Mark Waters, starring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, and Jon Heder. It is based on the novel If Only It Were True (Et si c'était vrai...) by Marc Levy. Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to make the film out of the book.^[2]

Plot

Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon), a young emergency medicine physician whose work is her whole life, is in a serious car accident while on her way to a blind date. Three months later, David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo), a landscape architect recovering from the sudden death of his wife, moves into the apartment that had been Elizabeth's, after 'discovering' it in what seems to be a 'fateful' happenstance.

Elizabeth's spirit begins to appear to David in the apartment with ghostly properties and abilities that make it clear that something is not right. She can suddenly appear and disappear, walk or move through walls and objects, and once takes over his actions. When they meet, they are both surprised, as Elizabeth is not aware yet of her recent history and refuses to think she is dead. David tries to have her spirit exorcised from the apartment, to no avail. Since only David can see and hear her, others think that he is hallucinating and talking to himself.

David and Elizabeth's spirit begin to 'bond', as much as that is possible, and he takes her out-of-town to a beautiful landscaped garden he designed. Elizabeth tells him she senses she has 'been there' before, and, in fact, the garden was something she was dreaming of in the opening scenes of the film, wherein-after she was awakened by a colleague from cat-napping after working a 26 hour shift in the hospital.

Together, assisted by a psychic bookstore clerk, Darryl (Jon Heder), Elizabeth and David find out who she is, what happened to her, and why they are connected. She is not dead, but in a coma, her body being kept on life support at the hospital where she used to work. When David discovers that in accordance with her living will, she will soon be allowed to die, he tries to prevent this by telling Elizabeth's sister, Abby, that he can see her and what the situation involves. It is revealed that one of Elizabeth's young nieces can also sense her presence.

Abby thinks David is mentally disturbed and drives him out of her house. Desperate, David decides to prevent Elizabeth's death by stealing her body from the hospital. He asks J.J, his friend, to help him and it is discovered that J.J is actually the former boyfriend of Abby, and he had set-up a blind date for David with Elizabeth, the night of the accident. The reason David can see Elizabeth is that they were meant to meet. He then admits to J.J and Elizabeth that he loves her and that is the reason he doesn't want her to die. He has 'gotten past' the death of his wife. While stealing Elizabeth's body, they are quickly discovered in the hospital. The security guards find them, pulling J.J away from Elizabeth's body, but when he is grabbed, her breathing tube is removed. David gets away from the guards a bit longer, but Elizabeth is now dying. David frantically kisses the dying Elizabeth, breathing some air into her lungs, while her spirit begins to fade away. Then, amazingly, her heartbeat returns and she miraculously awakens from the coma. However, the recovered Elizabeth doesn't remember anything that happened during the coma or any of the events with David, leaving him heartbroken.

Sometime later, Elizabeth goes back to her apartment. She is drawn up to roof of the building, which has been transformed into a beautiful landscaped garden. She finds David there, who has gotten in with a spare key Elizabeth's spirit had shown him. Just as he is about to leave, she asks for her key back. When their hands touch, her memory of the events during her coma are restored, and they kiss.

Cast

• Reese Witherspoon as Dr. Elizabeth Masterson
• Mark Ruffalo as David Abbot
• Jon Heder as Darryl
• Donal Logue as Jack
• Dina Waters as Abby Brody
• Ivana Miličević as Katrina
• Rosalind Chao as Dr. Fran Lo
• Ben Shenkman as Dr. Brett Rushton
• Joel McKinnon Miller as Lead Ghostbuster
• Caroline Aaron as Grace

Critical reception

Although the film was popular, it was overshadowed by Witherspoon's more high-profile and almost simultaneously released blockbuster Walk the Line, for which she won an Academy Award.

Critics were mixed on the film. The film achieved a 56% approval rating from 149 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and the consensus "Delightfully sweet like a lollipop, Just Like Heaven is a dreamy romantic comedy that may give you a toothache when it attempts to broach difficult end of life issues by throwing a cherry on top."^[3] However, the most prominent critics – such as Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper, and A. O. Scott – gave it favorable reviews;^[3] they all agreed that the plot had logical flaws that were somewhat overcome by good dialogue and characterization.

The performances of Witherspoon, Ruffalo, and Heder were all generally well received. Heder's appearance helped to debunk an urban legend that the actor had died shortly after filming Napoleon Dynamite.^[4]

The DVD release in February 2006 was given unusually strong promotional publicity.

Theme song

The title of this film is also that of a popular 1987 song, Just Like Heaven by The Cure. Singer Katie Melua recorded a cover version of the song for the soundtrack of the film. Melua's version is played over the opening titles, and has lines such as "she said" changed to "he said" to reflect the singer's gender. The original version by The Cure, as well as the remainder of Melua's version, are played over the closing credits.

The orchestral score was written by Rolfe Kent, and orchestrated by Tony Blondal.

Soundtracks

See also

• Ghost (1990 film)
• Always (1989 film)
• Soulmates

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Just Like Heaven

• Official website
• Just Like Heaven at the Internet Movie Database
• Just Like Heaven at AllMovie
• Just Like Heaven at Rotten Tomatoes