There's not much life in bland supernatural romance 'Just Like Heaven'

Reese Witherspoon is the one actress of new-generation Hollywood on whom all the critics seem to be in agreement: she has a unique personality, a special comedic flair and a high level of audience likability -- in short, the stuff of a true movie star.

MOVIE REVIEW

JUST LIKE HEAVEN

DIRECTOR: Mark Waters

CAST: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Heder

RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for some sexual content

GRADE: C+

LINKS/TRAILERS
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But she needs to pick better roles for herself. Her last three efforts -- "Sweet Home Alabama," "Legally Blonde 2" and "Vanity Fair" -- have been so wrong that she stands in danger of losing all the good graces she gained with "Election" and "Legally Blonde."

In her new film, "Just Like Heaven," she comes off somewhat better, but the film itself is such a forgettable, patched-together clone of other ghostly romances that it's hardly the vehicle she needs to get her career on track again.

She plays Elizabeth Masterson, a good-natured and selfless young woman who's emotionally isolated, workaholic existence as an intern in a big San Francisco hospital is abruptly ended late one night when a truck plows head-on into her car.

She wakes up to find herself a ghost, with little memory of her past and a stranger (Mark Ruffalo) living in her apartment. Naturally, she indignantly demands he leave the premises, but since she keeps fading in and out of his vision, he resists.

From here, the script follows the conventions of the traditional Hollywood supernatural romance -- from "Blithe Spirit" to "Portrait of Jennie" to "Ghost." No one but the hero can see Elizabeth, man and ghost fall in love, endless complications ensue.

Witherspoon definitely has her moments. The role is tailored to showcase her special blend of intelligence and vulnerability, and play down or make fun of the sharper aspects of her persona. She's also never been so flatteringly photographed.

As he did with "Freaky Friday" and "Mean Girls," director Mark Waters occasionally gives a kiss of originality to his formulaic material, and -- after a stumbling beginning -- a compelling urgency to his fast-paced plot line.

But the comedy is bland, the supporting cast (including "Napoleon Dynamite's" Jon Heder) is weak, and the script is loaded with those tiresomely inevitable ghost-comedy scenes in which the mortal hero mugs with an invisible partner while everyone thinks he's crazy.

And as good as Witherspoon is in places, her character is wildly inconsistent, her chemistry with the earnest and long-suffering Ruffalo has little romantic sizzle and she seems to be trying just a bit too hard to be totally cute and endearing.

It's also worth mentioning that, inadvertently or not, the film ends up taking a hard stand on -- and trivializing -- the Terry Schiavo issue. It may be a piece of fluff, but its timing is terrible in this regard, and families facing such a situation could understandably find it to be a seriously irresponsible statement.

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