Just Like Heaven

Just Like Heaven (2005) is adapted from the French writer Marc Levy's first novel, and its setup is less a ghost story than a flatmate comedy. David moves into an apartment in San Francisco. Elizabeth is already in it. She says she lives there, he can see her, nobody else can, and she cannot touch anything on her own. Neither of them knows what is going on. The first half runs on that awkwardness and it works: two people forced to share a flat where one cannot even hand the other a cup of tea. When who Elizabeth is becomes clear, the film leaves romantic comedy for a different question: who decides whether someone goes on living. The hospital section departs from the genre's usual lightness. Mark Ruffalo plays a man who has lost his wife and does not get off the sofa, which is nothing like the standard romantic comedy lead. The best thing about the pair is that neither pities the other. Reese Witherspoon was at the peak of her career here and won an Oscar the same year for Walk the Line. It runs 95 minutes. Good for: romantic comedy, supernatural love stories, and easy evening viewing. Less good for: it deals with coma and life support, the plot is predictable, and it does not reward looking for logic.