I'm a total sucker for ghost-human romances, so Just Like Heaven had me on its side from the git-go.   And it does not disappoint. 

As the movie opens, we meet Dr. Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon), in her 26th hour of duty at the hospital.  This is a woman who defines the expression 'all work and no play'.   We can see she's good at what she does, but if this was our friend, we'd be telling her to 'get a life!'  As in make some time for a personal life.  Before it's too late. 

But whoops.  It's already too late.   Finally leaving the hospital and an hour late for dinner with her sister's family, Elizabeth and her car meet up with a truck.  Head on.  Buh-bye.

Next we meet David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo), a morose fellow wandering around San Francisco with a real estate agent, looking for a decent rental.  The universe seems to be trying to help him with the flyer that keeps blowing into him and being discarded - he doesn't actually look at the thing until the wind plasters it right on his face.  And voila - the perfect sublet.  I'd say 'the sublet of his dreams', if David were the sort of guy who had any dreams anymore.  But he doesn't. 

So David sits on the sofa in his furnished month-to-month sublet, and drinks.  Who is this guy?  What does he do?  The movie is slow to tell us more about David. 

Suddenly there's a strange blonde woman in his apartment screaming at him.  "What are you doing in my apartment?!"  "Your apartment?  This is my apartment!" and so on.  And just as suddenly, she's gone.

Yes, David has sublet Elizabeth's apartment.   Elizabeth keeps popping in and out, criticizing David for the amount he's drinking and for not using coasters.  But she's not sure what's going on.  She doesn't remember anything about who she is, just that this is her place.  The only reason she knows that her name is Elizabeth is by reading it on the coffee mug David has been using.  Oh, and she can walk through walls. 

David is the first to realize that Elizabeth is only here in spirit, so he tries to exorcize her.  ("You should see a bright light - walk into the light.")  He brings in professionals, he reads books from the occult bookstore.  No luck.

And he's really starting to like her. 

As David and Elizabeth stop squabbling and start cooperating, we learn more about David.  He wasn't always like this.  He's still mourning his late wife Laura.  David was already being haunted before Elizabeth ever showed up.  Haunted in the usual grieving sense, rather than in the non-corporeal spirit showing up to nag sense. 

David and Elizabeth decide they need to figure out who Elizabeth is in order to resolve her situation.  The realtor has told David that the sublet is month to month due to some unexplained family tragedy that the family doesn't want to talk about, so finding out about the previous occupant isn't easy.  Eventually their research brings them to Saint Matthew's Hospital, and Elizabeth starts to remember.  "I work here!" 

But they find something else at Saint Matthew's.  They find Elizabeth.  Turns out she's not dead.  She's in a coma.  She's been in a coma for three months.  As a doctor, Elizabeth knows that the longer a coma continues, the less likely the patient is to recover.  She tries to get back into her body, but can't make herself 'stick'. 

So now they know the situation, but what they don't know is how to fix it.  Elizabeth's body is in a coma, her spirit is roaming, and they don't know how to put the two back together again. 

And Elizabeth's sister Abby (Dina Waters) is under increasing pressure to pull the plug.

Will true love conquer all?  Oh, come on - what do you think?

If this is Just Like Heaven, we should expect heaven to be frothy and touching, and a lot of fun.

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