Compare DVD : Just Like Heaven (Widescreen Edition)

Rating: - Love Immutable and Eternal
Just Like Heaven is one more film about lovers destined for each other, but mismatched in space or time, like Calling Mr Jordan, A Portrait of Jenny, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, Heaven Can Wait, Ground Hog Day, 12:01, When Harry Met Sally, The Thirteenth Floor, Fifty First Dates, Shallow Hal and the Lake House. I don't know why these films hold such an attraction for me, but they do. I think it may be because my wife and I met several times before we actually met, and she had no interest in me until I kissed her and we both just instantly knew. Compatibility certainly isn't what brought us together: this DVD was on the top of my Christmas list; Transformers topped hers.

In this story, the hero and heroine almost met just before an accident left her in a persistent coma. Now it's up to fate to bring them together by extraordinary means. Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo are both compelling and work well with each other in this excellent concept, well written by Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon from Marc Levy's novel If Only It Were True. Mark Waters direction keeps it simultaneously poignant and funny without ever getting forced or trite.

Most importantly, Dr Elizabeth Masterson and landscape architect David Abbot aren't larger than life. They could easily be people you know, with all the normal human imperfections. Their singularity is the inevitability of their being together. Just Like Heaven makes it easy to believe that there's a destiny for each of us, that one special person we were meant to be with. It pushed The Ghost and Mrs Muir off the top of my list of love out of time flicks. See it with someone you love and a box of tissues.