ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

This movie is awesome. But . . . what is it about?

It presents itself as a enjoyable romantic comedy in which Reese Witherspoon is a brilliant, dedicated young hospital resident who saves more lives each day than any three of the other doctors.

But then she apparently dies in a car crash — and yet, she doesn't know she's dead.

Mark Ruffalo is a young man who rents the late doctor's apartment, but then has to figure out how a lovely blond keeps appearing and ordering him to leave her home!

Gentlemen, a careful analysis of the plot reveals that this isn't a fantasy about the ghost of a dead woman who haunts a young man until they fall in love.

In short, this is NOT The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

I must confess that being an agnostic, I question the existence of "souls".

But being a science fiction writer, I acknowledge the possibility that human beings might have a "non-corporeal" element to our existence.

After all, as the smartest critters on the planet, perhaps our intelligence is a combination of our brain matter and something composed of pure energy — and it's something we can't yet detect!

With that in mind, I propose that Almost Like Heaven is the story of a brilliant female doctor whom we see apparently killed in an auto accident. But the non-corporeal element of her being isn't aware of this. So, she struggles to understand why she can't interact with the real world, even though she feels like she's still alive.

Mark Ruffalo is the only person who can see her (for reasons not explained) after he rents the apartment formally owned by the lovely young doctor.

The plot is a complex yarn about how the disembodied Reese Witherspoon teams up with the real-world Mark Ruffalo to figure out why these two star-crossed lovers seem to exist on separate plains of reality, when they'd much rather be rolling around naked in bed!

_________________ Just Like Heaven - Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)