Just Like Heaven

A man (Mark Ruffalo) sublets a beautiful San Francisco apartment whose owners won’t explain why it’s available, only to be confronted immediately by the previous occupant (Reese Witherspoon), who orders him out. Trouble is, she often disappears into thin air, walks through walls, can’t touch anything and refuses to believe that she seems to be a ghost. Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon’s script (from a novel by Marc Levy) is nothing special but serviceable enough: It offers a terrific romantic-fantasy hook; satisfying plot complications; a climactic tease; and dialogue that, if not especially witty, is at least sprightly. The movie soars on the chemistry of its two stars, with Ruffalo’s hangdog mopiness nicely offset by Witherspoon’s breathless chirp. Mark Waters’ workmanlike direction stays out of their way.