Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon) is a young doctor, so dedicated to her work that she has barely any social life at all. She agrees to go on a blind date that her sister has set up for her, but as she’s driving there, she loses concentration for a second and when she looks up, a huge truck is headed straight for her car…
Three months later, David Abbot (Mark Ruffalo) – depressed at end of his marriage, and drinking too much – is looking for an apartment in San Francisco. After looking at several unsuitable ones, he finds one that seems perfect and moves in. But he hasn’t been there long when a young woman named Elizabeth appears claiming that the apartment is hers. She turns up with increasing frequency – but she has a habit of disappearing before his eyes…and why is David the only one that can see her?…
I thought this was a charming and amusing film. The two leads are both wonderful and cute-as-a-button in their roles and there is real chemistry between them. Mark Ruffalo and Reese Witherspoon raised the movie above ‘made for daytime tv’ status and I ended up caring about their characters and what happened to them. There are also some very amusing scenes (including a few laugh out loud moments). There was plenty of scope for visual comedy, and Ruffalo played these scenes to perfection.
This is basically just a feel great romantic comedy with a bit of a twist…able support is provided by rest of the cast, especially John Heder, as a young man who is able to sense ghosts and whose help David seeks, but this is really David and Elizabeth’s story. I’d call it a ‘comfort movie’ – the sort of film that you’d put on when you need something to smile at. It’s definitely one which I will watch again. Definitely recommended to fans of comedy and rom-coms.
Year of release: 2005
Director: Mark Waters
Writers: Marc Levy (book), Peter Tolan, Leslie Dixon
Main cast: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Heder
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