Just Like Heaven (Reese Witherspoon)

(Amazon UK link)

We first saw ‘Just Like Heaven’ in 2008, but although we recalled liking it, we had entirely forgotten the storyline. So it was more than time to see it again. I hadn’t even looked at the blurb before sitting down to see it yesterday evening, and even while watching I had not recalled any of the story, nor how it ended.

The film revolves around a young American doctor, Elizabeth Masterton, superbly played by Reese Witherspoon. We meet her on duty after nearly 24 hours at work, dropping off to sleep for six minutes before rushing to see another patient. She’s clearly dedicated to her job, and cares deeply about the people she sees. But she’s also something of a workaholic, surviving by drinking a lot of coffee.

After a few more hours she finally goes off duty, and is on her way to dinner with her sister Abby when a disaster happens. We don’t see the outcome but it’s clearly something terrible. The action then moves to a young, picky and irritable man called David (Mark Ruffalo). He’s looking for somewhere to live, and driving the estate agent wild with his refusal to accept any of the places she offers. Then he happens to spot an advert for a one-month lease on the apartment where Elizabeth lived. Not that he knows anything about her, but he likes the view, and the couch, and decides to take it.

David is quite a loner, staying in the flat most of the time, drinking beer from cans, leaving things lying around, and watching TV. So he’s rather startled when a young woman appears, claiming it’s her apartment, and her stuff, and telling him what a slob he is…however she can’t quite recall who she is, or what she does.

It’s an unusual storyline, with one of the main protagonists portrayed as an ethereal spirit whom only David can see. Their initial anger with each other makes way to curiosity, and then he decides he will help her find out where she worked, and - if possible - why nobody else can see her, and why she doesn’t appear to have a physical body.

It’s essentially a romantic story with this rather basic difference, but it’s also amusing in places - Katrina (Ivana Milicevic) , a young and seductive woman in the same apartment block makes strong advances towards David, leaving little to the imagination. And there’s Darryl (Jon Heder), a vaguely hippy-ish man who owns a shop selling supernatural books. He turns out to be the only person who can even sense Elizabeth, so David turns to him for help.

There’s also a clever scene in a bar, where David meets his only real friend Jack (Donal Logue) and is determined to get drunk. Elizabeth is equally determined that he won’t - as a doctor she’s concerned about his alcohol intake - and a battle ensues. It’s very well choreographed and executed.

There are some much more serious issues involved too - the reason David is morose and unwilling to socialise gradually comes to light, and his unusual relationship with Elizabeth helps him to start to live again. And the whole issue of junior doctors overworking underlies this, along with some hints of dubious medical ethics, in one or two individuals.

The chemistry between David and Elizabeth is excellent, gradually growing as they get to know each other, and their timing is superb. The script is good, the pace just right, and the ending, if a tad cheesy, exactly right.

The rating is PG in the UK, which surprises me slightly; the US rating is PG-13, which seems more appropriate. There are no scenes of intimacy, although much is implied; there’s mild violence, though mostly humorous. And the bad language is fairly mild. However the subject matter isn’t at all appropriate for children - I wouldn’t really recommend anyone below the age of about 15 or 16 watch it.

There are some extras on our DVD: we watched a short documentary about the making of the film with commentary from various people involved in the production. We also saw the ‘gag’ scenes, of which several were shots of actors laughing at inappropriate moments, and we saw the deleted scenes including a much less appealing alternative ending.

Definitely recommended to older teens or adults if you like the rom-com genre.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Back-Up Plan (Jennifer Lopez)

(Amazon UK link)

Sometimes Amazon recommends a film to me that sounds very appealing, so I add it to my wishlist. That was the case with ‘The Back-up Plan’, and it was given to me by a relative for Christmas. It looked like a light-hearted rom-com, ideal for a relaxing evening’s viewing.

Jennifer Lopez stars as Zoe, a young and fashionable woman who’s surprisingly insecure. We learn early on that her mother died when she was a child, and her father wasn’t in the picture, so she was brought up by her grandmother (Linda Lavin). She is very independent and finds it difficult to trust anyone.

We meet her first in a hospital, where she is being inseminated artificially; she has decided that she’s not going to wait any longer for the right man. Instead she will have a baby with a donor whom she won’t meet. She feels very positive about this, and jumps into a taxi at the same time as Stan (Alex O’Loughlin). They argue briefly over whose taxi it is, and then both get out at the same time…

Zoe has no interest in a new relationship but Stan is quite taken with her, and they keep bumping into each other. They decide to be friends, but there’s a mutual attraction. She doesn’t expect her first attempt at insemination to be positive, but to her amazement, she finds that she is pregnant. All is going well with Stan, if a bit rapidly, until she decides that she must let him know about her baby…

It’s obvious where the story is going, but the way it gets there is both poignant and, at times, amusing. There’s great chemistry between the two principals, but also some disasters. At times it seems as if their relationship is doomed, as things keep going wrong. Zoe’s pregnancy causes her to be very hungry, and there are some scenes that would have been rather gross if they hadn’t also been amusingly done.

The script is clever, the pace is good, and the supporting cast are excellent. There’s a side story involving Zoe’s grandmother and her elderly fiancé of over twenty years, and there are some interludes with Zoe’s best friend Mona (Michaela Watkins) who has four extremely riotous children. There are more serious moments, albeit tinged with humour too, in a playground, where Anthony Anderson provides some good advice to a worried Stan.

There are also some amusing scenes with a very earnest single mothers’ group, who are exaggeratedly into natural childbirth and supporting each other in their femininity. It poked fun, somewhat, at women who prefer to keep everything natural - but they are warm and friendly women, and I thought it was done well.

The rating is 12A (PG-13 in the US) which seems about right to me. There’s some ‘strong’ language, but it’s not too excessive. There’s plenty of discussion about sexual matters, and we see the aftermath of intimate scenes, but the only nudity - or partial nudity - is connected with childbirth.

The ending is a tad cheesy - almost literally so, as it happens in a cheese showroom - but that’s not a problem. I like a happy ending. And while there’s nothing to make the film stand out amongst other romantic comedies, it’s certainly one we’ll watch again at some point.

There are some amusing outtakes over the end credits, and a brief documentary about the making of the film.

Definitely recommended to adults and older teenagers who don’t mind a story about pregnancy and childbirth.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Man Who Invented Christmas (Dan Stewart)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m not entirely sure how the film ‘The Man who Invented Christmas’ arrived on my wishlist. Perhaps Amazon had recommended it to me based on other films I had rated well. Or perhaps someone else had suggested. In any case, I was pleased to receive it as a Christmas gift. It seemed like the ideal film to watch towards the end of the Christmas period.

This film is a fictionalised story set in the mid 1840s, based around the writing of Charles Dickens’ classic novel ‘A Christmas Carol’. Dan Stevens is superb as the author, who would have been around thirty at the time. I had only seen pictures of Dickens as a much older man, so it took a moment’s readjustment of my mental images. But I quickly realised that it was probably a very realistic setting.

I didn’t know much about Dickens’ life, other than that he had a happy childhood until his father was thrown into a debtors’ prison, and Charles had to go and work in a factory, giving up his education. It didn’t stop him reading and working as a journalist, and eventually a novelist. But I had no idea about his family life - he was married with several children - nor that for a while he was in debt, and in doubt as to whether he could keep going.

I assume that most of the story involving the writing of his famous Christmas book was in the imagination of the script-writers, but it all feels quite realistic. Charles feels rather worthless after a successful American tour, and unable to write, all the more so as his publishers pressurise him and his debts mount. He’s an angry person who has not forgiven his father for his childhood traumas. He is also very angry about the way that the poor are treated. This comes across in several of his novels. Charles Dickens was responsible for raising public awareness about some of the horrors of poverty and the workhouse.

But the film is mainly about the slow progress made on the novel ‘A Christmas Carol’, along with several flashbacks. As the character of Scrooge (brilliantly played by Christopher Plummer) develops, so some of Charles’ hangups also reveal themselves. It’s cleverly done. The story of the novel is so well-known that of course we knew what would be coming, but the way the plot emerged, rather slowly, feels entirely believable.

Morfydd Clark deserves a mention as Charles’ long-suffering wife Kate. He is a man of many moods, and she looks after her household, uncertain when he’s going to fly into a temper, patient about his many quirks. There are several children, and Charles is clearly fond of them; at times he seems to be a excellent father, at others he almost entirely ignores them and his wife.

There’s plenty of low-key humour in the book, including times when Charles hears a new name, or watches a type of person whom we know is eventually going to be put in one of his future books. Dan Stevens has some very expressive looks, too, that say almost as much as some of the dialogue. And there’s plenty to think about too - we see glimpses of cruelty, and poverty, and the hopelessness of those without family or work. But they’re not over-done; there’s nothing gratuitous.

The film title, of course, is hyperbole since Christmas relates to the birth of Christ 1840 or so years earlier, and also the ancient legends of St Nicholas. But apparently the popularity of his book changed ideas about celebrating Christmas in the minds of the general public, in particular encouraging them to help those less fortunate than themselves.

The PG rating reflects the lack of bad language, nudity, violence and so on. But I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unfamiliar with ‘A Christmas Carol’, nor to a sensitive child who might be upset at the flashbacks to Charles’ later childhood.

Other than that, I would highly recommend this film, which absorbed us fully and gave an excellent insight into Dickens’ circumstances as a young man, as well as some more imaginative fantasy scenes involving dreams and visions.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews