Over Her Dead Body
Over Her Dead Body is a dreary and brain dead romantic comedy that isn't really about anything in particular. It features a ghost, but it's not really about her or the afterlife. It features two people falling in love, but it's not about them either. They are just pawns to be manipulated and moved about by the screenplay that kind of casts out a couple workable ideas here and there, but mainly just meanders about aimlessly. The action kicks off when a bride-to-be named Kate (Eva Longoria Parker from TV's Desperate Housewives) is running about, trying to make the final preparations for her wedding to a guy named Henry (Paul Rudd). Henry's a vet, and Kate never has a specified job, but she is clearly an extreme perfectionist and enjoys bossing people around. She has a fit when she sees the angel ice sculpture for the wedding doesn't have any wings. Due to circumstances too contrived to recap here, the scene ends with Kate dead, crushed by the sculpture. She goes to Heaven briefly, but doesn't get to stay there very long, as she fades away for no reason whatsoever. The movie then forgets about her for such a long period of time that I started to wonder what had happened to her.
Back on Earth, Henry's still upset over the death of Kate one year later. His sister, Chloe (Lindsay Sloane), decides it's time he moved on, and enlists the help of a caterer and part-time psychic named Ashley (Lake Bell). She gives Ashley Kate's diary, so that Ashley can have an arranged meeting with Henry, pretend she had a visit from Kate's ghost, tell him a bunch of personal stuff from the diary so that he will believe her, and then tell him that Kate's spirit says it's time he moved on. Funny thing is, during the meeting, she actually takes a liking to Henry, and so does he to her. That's when Kate's ghost pops up, and she's not happy that her former fiance is moving on. She makes her presence known to Ashley (the only one who can see and hear her), and starts playing various pranks to try to sabotage their relationship. She keeps Ashley up all night telling rambling stories of old pets she had as a kid. She hovers over the couple while they are trying to make love. She even makes overly loud flatulent noises while Ashley and Henry are trying to be intimate. Thrown into the plot is Ashley's best friend and partner in the catering business, Dan (Jason Biggs), who is secretly in love with her, but has been pretending to be gay for the past 5 years due to a misunderstanding Ashley made early in their relationship. And yes, the character of Dan and the story that surrounds him is just as dumb and as pointless as it sounds.
When Jeff Lowell was writing this script, did he ever stop and wonder why anyone would want to watch a movie about these people? Henry and Ashley are the blandest pair of lovers to walk into a romantic comedy in a while. Aside from a couple small bits of witty sarcasm thrown into their dialogue, the two hold no personality, nor do they possess any reason to fall for each other except for the fact that the movie requires them to. When they kiss or make love, it feels forced and lacking warmth. We start to wonder what they see in each other. More so, we wonder what Henry ever saw in Kate. From the very first scene, Kate is irritable, nasty, manipulative, selfish, and mean. The movie seems to know this, as according to the IMDB, one of the early working titles for this film was "Ghost Bitch". So, just who are we supposed to be rooting for when we watch this movie? Do we root for the bland, personality-free lovers, or do we root for the invisible screaming harpy trying to break them up? The movie never quite decides which side it's on, so when it reaches its happy ending (which includes the often-used romantic comedy cliche of a character running through an airport, trying to stop another character from going off with the wrong person), we don't feel anything. To be fair, the movie does add an interesting twist to the airport climax scene. This is the first time I've seen a character running through an airport with a parakeet that is possessed by the spirit of his dead fiance screeching advice to him.
What irritated me the most is that the movie doesn't even seem interested in itself. Here is a movie about a ghost trying to break up a relationship. Think of the possibilities you could dream up with this concept. All this movie can think of doing is having the ghost do childish pranks. It doesn't even explain where the ghost of Kate came from. She just suddenly pops up and starts tormenting them. Was she watching Henry and Ashley the entire time, and finally just decided to make her presence known? What was she doing all that time? How has she gotten used to being dead? Like I said, she goes to Heaven, fades away for no reason, and then about a good half hour or so later, she suddenly appears in front of Ashley and starts making her life a living hell with no explanation. The movie can't even make up its mind on the rules that Kate's spirit should follow. Some scenes, she is able to pass through people and solid objects. And yet, she can sit on chairs, couches, and beds without having her body fall through them. Maybe it sounds like I'm nitpicking bringing up this point, but it bothered me for some reason. It doesn't help matters that nobody here seems to be having fun. This is plainly evident in the usually talented Paul Rudd, who here looks like he wishes he were somewhere else in just about every scene he's in. I certainly sympathized with him, but I think it was for the wrong reason.
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