Director:
Mark Waters
Cast:
Reese Witherspoon……….Elizabeth
Mark Ruffalo……….David Abbott
Donal Logue……….Jack
Jon Heder……….Darryl
Dina Waters………..Abby
Ben Shenkman……….Brett
Ivana Milicevic……….Katrina
Rosalind Chao……….Fran
Ron Canada……….Dr. Walsh
DreamWorks Pictures presents Just Like Heaven. Written by Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon. Based on the novel If Only It Were True by Marc Levy. Running time: 95 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for some sexual content). Available on DVD: February 7, 2006.
The movie:
Typically, romance comedies have a paint-by-numbers approach. Man meets a girl, loses her, and gets her in the end. But what happens when a love develops between a man and a spirit? This is one of the questions posed in Just Like Heaven, an out-of-body, spiritual romcom.
Elizabeth is a woman that David can see. She is an apparition only to him. She’s not a ghost, because she is still alive. Why can only David see her? It could have something to do with him renting her old apartment. Serendipity or happenstance, call it what you will, but don’t try to find logic in this plot point. Accept it for what it is.
Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo are the actors who play their respective roles. They are sweet, good-natured souls with baggage. The parts they have had in earlier films have defined their sensitivity and sweetness. Maybe that is why director Mark Waters cast them as the leads.
From the looks of her Elizabeth is the oldest twenty-something-year-old in the world. She isn’t married and she doesn’t have a boyfriend. Her work is her life. Elizabeth is striving to be an acting attendee at a San Francisco hospital. Working in stretches of 24 hours or more she must deal with wedding proposals from elderly men and guys who want to grab her ass. Cappuccino and lattes help her through the long, laborious hours; but when she burns out, Elizabeth gets some much deserved me time and dreams of a majestic garden filled with awe-inspiring foliage.
Her friends at the hospital, who have the unenviable tasks of sewing caterpillar costumes for a school play or going to dinner with an ex-hubby and his mother because he hasn’t worked up the nerve to tell his mom the relationship is over, see Elizabeth’s situation as a godsend. They admit she is so lucky that all she has to think about is work.
David was a landscape architect until two years previous when his wife died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. Still reeling and stuck in a rut, he spends his days drinking Miller Genuine Draft beer and loafing on the sofa. When Elizabeth suddenly appears as he heads from the kitchen with another MGD, David can’t help but scream and spray beer fizz all over the floor.
If seeing is believing, then David is reluctant to believe that this is real. It must be a figment of his imagination or the effects of excessive beer guzzling. No longer in a rut, David looks to confront this supernatural presence, with the help of Darryl (Napoleon Dynamite‘s Jon Heder), the clerk at a paranormal bookstore. When the books don’t work he hires an exorcist, a bunch of Asian ladies, and ghostbusters not named Ray, Egon, or Peter Venkman. Watching this all unfold, Elizabeth can’t help but comment on “Father Flanagan and the Joy Luck Club.”
Elizabeth has an understanding of David, but she has no recollection of her life. So the majority of the story is David working with Elizabeth in trying to solve the mystery of her life and death. Through interactions we meet her sister, her friends from work, and the arrogant prick that became acting attendee when she became a spirit.
As an audience we know early on how Elizabeth got into her current condition, what we don’t know is how to bring her back to existence. She is on life support in the San Francisco hospital. David, who has now become enamored with Elizabeth, must find a way to bring her back before Abby (Dina Waters), Elizabeth’s sister, decides to pull the plug – which is sooner rather than later.
The movie is filled with all kinds of contrivances like wondering how David can afford to lease an apartment when he doesn’t have any gainful employment. Then there’s the issue where Elizabeth, as a spirit, can rest peacefully on a bed but she moves through inanimate objects like doors and table. Oh, and not to mention the scene where David races to get to the hospital with his friend Jack (Donal Logue) in tow. It helps to have two people when snatching a body from impending death. One can be a distraction, the other can be Prince Charming kissing the sleeping beauty in hopes she will wake up.
Despite the preposterousness of the story, it works. High concept it may be, Just Like Heaven is a love story that has two impressive leads and fun dialogue. Reese Witherspoon has shown with movies like Legally Blonde and Pleasantville she can be bubbly and homely. Her character Elizabeth combines the best characteristics. Mark Ruffalo may be an unknown to some, but his role in You Can Count on Me and appearance in Collateral established him as an actor with great ability. He may not have the looks desperate housewives look for in a romcom or a Harlequin romance novel – namely, chiseled characteristics – but when he’s paired with Reese Witherspoon, both Elizabeth and David are plausible as a couple. Nothing like you’d see on a network sitcom. Thank goodness.
Score: 7/10
The DVD:
VIDEO: How does it look?
(Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
On the small screen, Just Like Heaven looks just like it did when I saw it on the big screen. In a sense the transfer is “just like heaven”. No spec of dirt on the print and the color really comes out in the apartment and the scene where David shows Elizabeth one of his landscape designs. Daryn Okada, the director of photography on the film, with the help of the lighting crew did his level-headed best at making the apartment, whether it be dusk or dawn, illuminate radiantly.
Score: 8/10
AUDIO: How does it sound?
(English and French Dolby Digital 5.1; English Dolby Digital 2.0)
Rolfe Kent who composed and conducted the music for Mark Waters’ film has a knack for highlighting moods transitioning from one scene to the next. Together with a soundtrack that includes Beck, The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”, and The Cars, plus Reese Witherspoon (pre June Carter Cash) singing “Tomorrow” from the musical “Annie”. The transfer is crisp in either 5.1 or 2.0.
Score: 8/10
SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentary, deleted scenes, and a gag reel!!
While doing modest business at the box office, Just Like Heaven was not a title that was destined to be a special edition title. What we do get, however, are features that allow us to spend a little more time with Mark and Reese.
We begin with a commentary with three participants: Mark Waters [Director], Bruce Green [Editor], and Daryn Okada [Director of Photography]. Try not to differentiate between the three or you’ll just end up with a headache. This is not the type of commentary you listen to if you are an aspiring filmmaker. The trio mostly shares stories about the production and casting. The things I learned from listening to them are if you want “Napoleon Dynamite” for a part you should hire Napoleon Dynamite, and that the moviegoing public is smarter than you might think. Mark Waters name-drops David Mamet because it was he who believed that people could tune into a movie thirty minutes or halfway through and be able to know the characters and plot within 30 seconds.
For more insight on the production and casting watch The Making of Just Like Heaven and Meet the Cast. The first behind-the-scenes featurette is a little over 14 minutes and has five little subsections: From Book to Screen; Shooting in San Francisco; Working with Mark S. Waters; Acting Invisible; and On the Set. One of the producers of the film believes a good obstacle makes for a good romantic comedy. And, in the case of Elizabeth’s obstacle, is there any greater challenge? Mark Waters admits that Reese and Mark were his top two choices to play Elizabeth and David. He knew Reese could be perky and funny, but he wasn’t sure of Mark. I guess he proved all those casting agencies that said he could only do drama that he could be funny after all.
The “Meet the Cast” feature is 13 minutes and includes talking head sound bites intercut with clips from the film and behind-the-scenes footage. Seven actors are discussed in rapid succession. I’m not sure we needed any mention of Ben Shenkman, as the pompous toad Brett, who got the attendee position when Elizabeth went into a coma. The examination of Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo’s characters is of interest because comparisons are drawn to Kate Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. The only other revelation that’s worthy of note is the emotional issues David is dealing with. Just Like Heaven isn’t about Elizabeth’s problems, but the problems these two must overcome.
The director and editor wisely cut the four deleted scenes that are included with the special features. Running a little over five minutes, the scenes don’t work in the context of the movie. In the extended scene where Elizabeth and David are visiting one of his landscape designs, she stands in the center and starts levitating. Um, okay. Also, if the filmmakers had included the alternate ending with the final cut, I am sure women would have thrown their popcorn at the screen if the movie was still playing in theaters. You may even shake your head in disbelief in knowing the movie could have ended this way.
There is also a five-minute gag reel that has some amusing bits. Under previews you can find advertisements for Prime, Pride and Prejudice, and Something New. When you pop the DVD in the player ads for other DreamWorks Pictures releases are shown.
The extras are okay and all, but it would have been neat to see a behind-the-scenes look at how the special effects guys created the illusion of a Reese Witherspoon who could walk through doors and fall out of windows without receiving as much as a scratch.
Score: 4/10
