Yes this is a chick flick. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I did enjoy this though, not that it is without flaw, it was a simple romantic humorous tale. Director Mark Waters doesn't fail at achieving the objective of converting an adaptation from the book "If It Were Only True" to the big screen. "Just Like Heaven" stars two bright characters, Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. Reese portrays Elizabeth Masterson, a workaholic nurse who has no social life to come home to. Ruffalo plays David Abbot, a single architect that too, doesn't have a social life or much of it. He is friends with his shrink, Jack Houriskey (Donal Logue) who tries to set him up with Elizabeth. Problem is, David blows her off and never meets her.

The story is short and simple. Elizabeth is in a comatose state and her spirit, because her body is slowly withering away, takes form in her apartment which is subletted to David. He is the only one who can see her and interact and the two's chemistry slowly begins to unravel. Ruffalo's character is amusing and sarcastic towards Witherspoon's, who displays spunk and witty banter with Ruffalo. Elizabeth's sister Grace, played by Caroline Aaron was included in the storyline to give the element of suspense, to hold us on the edge of our seats and desperately share the same hope that David held, trying to do the impossible.

The cameo roles of Jon Heder as Darryl, the bookstore manager, and Donal Logue as Jack Houriskey, provided a nice relief of character's because Witherspoon and Ruffalo occupied the majority of the screen time. Heder was very "Napoleon Dynamite" like with some sweet one-liners while Logue, who I haven't seen in a good movie since "The Tao of Steve" was a surprise.

Although this film is supposed to be cute and romantic, it lacks both throughout and only displays it at the end. The chemistry between Ruffalo and Witherspoon does not have any real depth other than arguing over the apartment. I could not really feel emotionally connected to the characters because of the poor dialogue between them. It was hard for me to believe the story when I had no idea why they even liked each other. She is equally as bitter as he was in not budging out of occupation of the apartment.

Eventually, the two become attracted to each other and David frantically searches for a way to get her spirit back into her body so they can be together for real. Another quip I have against this film is the obvious ending. From the beginning when David sublets Elizabeth's apartment, it gave away the fact that she was not dead and her body was in her hospital where she worked. Watching this movie seemed to be a waste of time because of the poor dialogue and predictable plot. I just wanted to push an imaginary fast forward button to the end where I can see the two lovebirds get together.

Not like your traditional romantic comedy, "Just Like Heaven" is cute and simple. The characters are easy to follow and enjoyable, but the predictable plotline weighs down the overall tone of this film, leaving this film spiritless until the end.

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