I really don't like Reese Witherspoon. I don't really see much in her acting abilities, or on a basic male level of needed to find her all that attractive. I only liked her in Election, Freeway, and Pleasantville, only because those movies were bigger than her, and would have been good no matter who played those roles. I never felt Reese brought all that much to the table.

That being said, I really enjoyed Just Like Heaven. And more so, I enjoyed Reese Witherspoon in Just Like Heaven. It has me excited to see how she portrays June Carter Cash in Walk The Line this fall. (I'm a pretty big Cash fan, so you bet I'll be there with bells on). Come to think of it, there's hardly a thing in Just Like Heaven that I didn't enjoy.

Just Like Heaven tells the story of Elizabeth, a workaholic doctor who has no time for a social life, but she's working really hard so it doesn't matter, right? She's aiming for a residency position at the hospital she works at, and things like dating and family fall by the wayside for a character like this. Anyway, she gets the promotion, and on her way to her sister's house to meet a potential man, she gets into a car crash. A little bit later comes David (Mark Ruffalo), a man in search of a comfortable couch. He finds Elizabeth's apartment by chance (or was it?) and sublets it, not knowing anything about the previous occupant. He soon learns all about Elizabeth as she seems to be haunting him while he sits on her comfortable couch watching TV and drinking too much beer.

Elizabeth is a spirit, but does that funny thing where she denies being anything else but corporeal. David does his best to ignore her, but he just can't seem to shake her. Once David starts believing, through the help of occult book shop worker Daryl (Jon Heder, aka Napoleon Dynamite), he begins to form a bond with her, and tries to help her figure out what happened, and why David is the only person who can see her. Will love blossom? What do you think?

Alright, so the movie has a lot going against it. It's a sappy romantic comedy that has to fill most of the requirements for the genre. It has Reese Witherspoon, an actress I'm pretty vocal about disliking. It has a whole supernatural element on top of everything. And it casts Napoleon Dynamite in a role that isn't Napoleon Dynamite, no matter how hard we try. Despite all these, I wound really lifted by this movie.

Witherspoon isn't nearly as obnoxious as I've seen her be in previous films. (Aforementioned films notwithstanding). Her character could grow irksome, but she never does. She transcends cliche to pull off a winning lady I wouldn't mind finding myself waking up to. Or facing the ghostly spirit of in my refrigerator. And Mark Ruffalo is fast becoming my new hero. Every time I see him in a movie, he surprises me. He plays characters, not persona. In this one, he's got to play the emotionally closed off guy who might not believe the circumstances around him, but who buys into it at just the right time. He doesn't feel forced. This goes for later on, when we learn more about his past. In any other romantic comedy, the tragedies of a character's past loves would be delivered awkwardly or suddenly. Sometimes both. Again, though, in this film it feels perfectly natural. Ruffalo delivers, and you feel he gets everything his character deserves.

(One brief note, Ruffalo has a scene straight out of All Of Me, where Reese "possesses" his body and takes control. Ruffalo adds a new image to himself, that of physical comedian. He's quite funny in this part, and it makes me want to see him and Russell Crowe in a Farrelly brothers made Three Stooges film. Now we need a third stooge).

The supporting characters are quite good as well. Donal Logue, the man forever my hero because of The Tao of Steve, plays David's best friend, who could have been obnoxious or cliched, but he's also very natural, and makes you realize that he and Ruffalo WOULD be friends. Dina Waters is quite good as Reese's sister, even though she doesn't have much to do. And of course, there's Jon Heder. This will be the dividing point of the film, I feel. He's not in it that much. and when he is in it, he's forever going to remind people that he's Napoleon Dynamite. I'm perfectly ok with this, and I thought he was hilarious. He's a California guy, open to all things in the world, and I just found him hilarious. Many will not, I feel. Personally, I thought he brought more to the film that could have been strictly paint by numbers.

The writing is clever and witty, the direction spry. Mark Waters, who last made Mean Girls, knows how take something average and make it rise over the rest. I don't know how he does it. Maybe he's got really great talent at picking scripts, I don't know. But the man has made two solid films that I enjoyed way more than I should have. The cinematography was quite nice, capturing a lovely San Francisco that only exists in movies, but I'll be damned if that didn't win me over too.

I'm not a romantic comedy kind of guy. I find romance to be a tragedy, and quite awkward, and that's reflected in my taste in the romantic comedy genre. (Around Valentine's Day, I'll most likely write a list of my favorite romantic movies, which will not surprise you at all. Sadly, Die Hard isn't on the list). I don't like the conventions of the genre, and I generally feel that everything that happens is all machinations of a plot, and the only reason characters do things is to move the script forward. And for the record, I loathe Meg Ryan. Just Like Heaven, however, is much better than a romantic comedy should be, and for that I respected it. I left the theater completely satisfied, and wanting to fall in love. Of course, reality is a cruel mistress, but that doesn't stop me from escaping into the dark for a few hours and watching two nice people fall in love. Especially when I feel they deserve each other. That's all anyone can really ask for in a film like this.