Just like Heaven (2005 film)

Just like Heaven is a 2005 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Mark Waters and starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. It is based on the 1999 French novel If Only It Were True (Et si c'était vrai...) by Marc Levy.

Steven Spielberg obtained the rights to produce the film from the book.^[1] The film was produced by Parkes/MacDonald Productions and released in the United States by DreamWorks Pictures on September 16, 2005. Despite mixed reviews from critics, it grossed $102.9 million on a budget of $58 million.

Elizabeth Masterson, an emergency room resident physician in San Francisco focused on her profession, is in a car crash while on her way to a blind date at her sister's. Three months later, landscape architect David Abbott, needing a fresh start after his wife's death, sublets Elizabeth's apartment.

Elizabeth begins to appear in the apartment, and both are confused. She thinks he is a squatter, and he thinks she broke in. They soon realize she moves through walls and objects. Elizabeth does not know who she is and insists she is not dead.

David unsuccessfully tries to have Elizabeth's spirit exorcised. As only he can see and hear her, others think he is hallucinating and talking to himself. Elizabeth asks him to help her discover who she really is, so David first talks to her neighbors but they do not know her.

David enlists the help of psychic bookstore clerk Darryl, who says Elizabeth is not really dead. He also tells David he has clearly got a blocked heart and needs to let go of the woman who was previously in his life. When Elizabeth says he should get over being dumped, he storms out, and Darryl tells Elizabeth to not disrespect the dead. She finds David and he explains about his wife's death.

While checking out a restaurant, Elizabeth sees a man having a medical emergency, so she helps David save his life. Suddenly, she remembers being a doctor, so they go to the nearest hospital, where it all comes flooding back. Dr. Fran Lo, her mentor, takes him to Elizabeth, who is in a coma. When David touches her hand, Elizabeth feels it, meaning she is still connected to her body.

Elizabeth's sister Abby arrives, and Dr. Brett Rushton – Elizabeth's rival – notifies her that Elizabeth signed a DNR order. He asks her to sign off on disconnecting life support, and she says she will consider it.

David and Elizabeth bond. When he takes her to a beautiful landscaped garden he designed, she tells him she senses she has been there before. In fact, she was dreaming of the garden (in the opening scenes of the film), while catnapping during a long shift.

When David is told he has been offered a long-term lease, he realizes Elizabeth will be taken off life support. He tries to prevent it by going to Abby's to tell her that she is communicating with him. While there, Elizabeth discovers that her niece Lily can see her. David begs Abby to keep her alive, but she has already signed the papers, with life support ending the next day. As a last-ditch effort, David blurts out Abby's secret kiss on her wedding day, freaking her out so she drives him out of her house.

Elizabeth opts to spend her last night with David in the apartment. The next morning, he is determined to prevent her death by stealing her body from the hospital, so he enlists his therapist friend Jack to help. Upon reaching her body, Elizabeth suddenly recognises Jack as Abby's former college boyfriend, who reveals that the two of them had set up David and Elizabeth for a blind date on the night of the crash; David realizes he can see her because they were destined to meet. He admits to Jack and Elizabeth that he loves her.

Security guards catch them trying to steal Elizabeth's body. As they pull Jack away from her, her breathing tube comes off. Elizabeth is now dying, and David frantically kisses her mouth, while her spirit fades away. Her heartbeat returns and she awakens from the coma. She recognizes Abby, but not David, so he sadly leaves.

Sometime later, Elizabeth moves back into her apartment. Drawn to the roof, she finds David, who has transformed it into a landscaped garden. He reveals he had gotten in using the spare key her spirit had shown him. When Elizabeth asks for it back, their hands touch, her memory of the events during her coma is restored, and they kiss happily.

The final scene fades away from the rooftop to show Darryl staring into a snow globe, happy with "seeing" how things have turned out.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of 149 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Delightfully sweet like a lollipop, Just Like Heaven is a dreamy romantic comedy that may give you a toothache when it attempts to broach difficult end of life issues by throwing a cherry on top."^[2] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[3]

Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper, and A. O. Scott all gave it favorable reviews, agreeing that the plot had logical flaws that were somewhat overcome by good dialogue and characterization.

Just like Heaven grossed $48.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $54.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $102.9 million, against a budget of $58 million.^[4]

DreamWorks Home Entertainment released Just like Heaven on DVD on February 7, 2006. The DVD release included a number of special features, such as an audio commentary with director Mark Waters, editor Bruce Green, and cinematographer Daryn Okada. Other extras included a gag reel, a collection of deleted scenes with optional commentary, and a featurette titled "Meet the Cast" with interviews from the film's stars. A general "making of" documentary was also included.^[5] In Hong Kong, Just like Heaven received a VCD release on February 14, 2006, from local distributor Intercontinental Video.^[6] The film's DVD was briefly shown during a scene in the DreamWorks Animation film Flushed Away (2006). The scene depicted several DreamWorks Animation DVDs, alongside Just like Heaven and other live-action DreamWorks DVDs including Mouse Hunt, Old School, Paulie, Red Eye, The Last Castle, The Love Letter and The Peacemaker.^[7]

In February 2006, Viacom (now known as Paramount Skydance) acquired the rights to Just like Heaven and all 58 other live-action films DreamWorks had released since 1997, following their $1.6 billion acquisition of the studio's live-action film library and the library of DreamWorks Television.^[8][9] As part of the deal, Viacom/Paramount signed a six-year distribution agreement with DreamWorks Animation, which became its own separate company in October 2004 after splitting off from the live-action divisions of DreamWorks.^[10][11]

Paramount Home Entertainment reissued Just like Heaven on DVD on September 26, 2017, although they have currently never released the film on Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD.^[12] Paramount later added the film to their subscription streaming service Paramount+, which launched in 2021, in addition to making it available on their free streaming service Pluto TV.^[13][14] In Australia, it was also on the streaming service for the Paramount-owned broadcaster Network 10.^[15]

The title of this film is also that of a popular 1987 song, "Just like Heaven" by The Cure. Singer Katie Melua recorded a cover version of the song for the soundtrack of the film. Melua's version is played over the opening titles and has lines such as "she said" changed to "he said" to maintain a heterosexual narrative. The original version by The Cure, as well as the remainder of Melua's version, are played over the closing credits.

The orchestral score was written by Rolfe Kent, and orchestrated by Tony Blondal.

A soundtrack album for the film was released on September 13, 2005.^[16] The album was handled by Columbia Records rather than DreamWorks' own label DreamWorks Records, which had been sold to Universal Music Group in November 2003 for $100 million, and which was shut down around the time Just like Heaven was released.^[17] Columbia had also handled the soundtrack for Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004), another DreamWorks film released following UMG's takeover of DreamWorks Records.^[18]

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• Official website
• Just like Heaven at IMDb 
• Just like Heaven at Rotten Tomatoes