Pesky ghosts who won't leave the living alone have been used to spin tales of romance, comedy, suspense and horror.
Just Like Heaven takes its cue from such romantic stage comedies as Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, charming TV series like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and the classic supernatural love story, Ghost.
Mark Ruffalo is David Abbott, a lonely, despondent landscape architect who moves into a beautiful San Francisco apartment, only to discover the former occupant has not yet moved out.
One day he is visited by the beautiful but angry Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon) who wants to know what he's doing in her apartment.
David tries to explain, but when he looks away, Elizabeth disappears as quickly as she appeared.
David has been drowning his sorrows, so he blames it on the booze until Elizabeth returns numerous times.
Then David knows he's dealing with something special and that something special soon becomes someone special as he begins to fall in love with Elizabeth.
What David and the audience learn is that Elizabeth is hovering between life and afterlife.
Watching David and Elizabeth's splendid bickering relationship evolve into a romance makes Just Like Heaven a treat.
Witherspoon's specialty is playing spunky, strong-willed women who are equally charming when they're intermittently ditzy.
Ruffalo's disbelief is the ideal balance and it's great fun watching David find the romantic hero within himself.
Just Like Heaven never gets as supremely romantic as Ghost, but it touches the heart several times as David and Elizabeth sense that her presence is steadily weakening.
Just Like Heaven needs strong supporting characters and we find these in Donal Logue as David's playboy therapist and Ivana Milicevic as the buxom upstairs neighbour.
But every time Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder pops in as a psychic bookstore clerk, the movie stops cold.
It's one of those dreadful celebrity cameos that detract rather than complement a film. Nothing he does or says is remotely funny.
Just Like Heaven is a spirited diversion that showcases the talents of Witherspoon and Ruffalo, who should team up again soon.
(This film is rated PG)
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