Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this romantic comedy begins with a harrowing (though briefly shown) car accident, leaving a young woman apparently dead. She reappears as a neat-freak ghost in her old apartment, harassing the lonely garden designer who's moved in. Characters drink (at home, in a bar). A woman neighbor tries to seduce David by undressing in his apartment. The film also includes images of ghosts and spells in an "occult" book. Doctors and family discuss whether to continue life support for a woman in a coma. While most of the movie is light-hearted, it raises a serious question: how do you decide when to turn off life support for a loved one?
Families who watch this movie might discuss the relationship between the sisters, as this creates the eventual dilemma/climax, as to whether Elizabeth should be taken off life support. How are they both loving and competitive, jealous and supportive? You might also consider the film's use of romantic comedy structures (boy meets girl, etc.) in relation to the ethical and even spiritual questions it poses, concerning life, death, and grief.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
Some plot spoilers ahead:
A Sleeping Beauty story refashioned to combine upbeat rom-com conventions and ER-lite medical-ethical dilemmas, JUST LIKE HEAVEN poses a grim question: should a very nice young mother of two pull the life-support plug on her sister after three months of coma? It's a preposterous idea to cram into a romance. And while Mark Waters (who recently directed another sort of body-identity anxiety movie, Freaky Friday) is working with the completely charming and mostly convincing Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo, even this talented trio can't make this creepy perfect-ghost-girl idea go away.
That doesn't mean they don't try. Witherspoon's workaholic doctor Elizabeth is introduced as slightly yearning; her friends have relationships, her sister Abby (Dina Waters) has two adorable daughters, and yet, Elizabeth can't unstick her sometimes neurotic perfectionism and dedication to her patients long enough to develop a life outside work. Driving to a rare blind date one night, she crashes into a truck; shortly afterwards, her gorgeous San Francisco apartment is rented by a lonely landscape designer, David (Ruffalo) with a specialty in gardens. He is, in other words, the ideal guy: sensitive, a little sad, lonely, and not a all into lusting after women, even when his lovely airheaded neighbor, Katrina (Ivana Milicevic), who thinks "Osama" is a communist, tries seducing him.
The only issue for this perfect guy is that he's mourning a lost wife (he's fond of drinking beer and watching his wedding videos on Saturday nights), and so his meeting with the seeming ghost Elizabeth (whom he calls Lizzy, since he sees her for the warm and sweet person she might be), means he now has a built-in friend. Her issue, aside from seeming dead, is that she obsesses over details like cup rings on her tables (his laid-backness serves as productive counterpoint). Clearly, they're made for each other, save for the small obstacle of her seeming deadness. David gets some encouragement when an occult bookstore clerk (Jon Heder repeating his Napoleon Dynamite part, though less obnoxiously) suggests that for a spirit, she's very "alive," that is, caught between death and life.
Families who like this movie might like the more charming ghost romances, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Bishop's Wife (and the remake, The Preacher's Wife), and Topper (1937). Or you might look for more recent films dealing with ghosts, body parts, or spirits in limbo, like Return to Me, Ghost, Reversal of Fortune (with Glenn Close in a clever spin on the coma-spirit), Wings of Desire, 21 Grams (a smart, provocative, and violent R-rated drama, as opposed to romantic comedy).
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentSome conversation about sex; woman appears in revealing "exercise" outfit; woman in a towel drops it (view from her back); joke about "lubricant." |
 |
|
 |
|
ViolenceCar crash at start is abrupt, but not explicitly shown. |
|
|
|
|
LanguageMild language. |
|
|
|
|
Message |
|
|
|
|
Social Behavior |
 |
|
|
|
CommercialismReferences to coffee styles (not brands), Ghostbusters, Heineken. |
|
|
|
|
Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoCharacters drink (beer in front of tv; one scene in a bar). |
|
 |
|
|
