Just Like Heaven
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: September 16, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
12
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostKyle Smith
Just Like Heaven isn't far short of a classic among romantic comedies with a teary chaser, sure to please fans of "Ghost" and "Heaven Can Wait." Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Yes. The movie works, and so we accept everything. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineAngel Cohn
Works because of the utterly charming leads and a strong supporting cast. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
Crossing the life-death divide, Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo are a winning pair in this smart and tender comedy. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
That Just Like Heaven succeeds at all - at least for teenage girls with limited interest in the drafting of living wills - is due entirely to Witherspoon's can-do charisma. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
There's a manipulative streak to the proceedings, and you'd have to be stone cold dead not to grasp the inevitable outcome long before the third act, but it's a professionally handled sort of emotional manipulation common to its genre, dating back to "Blithe Spirit" and, somewhat less memorably, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
The film, which comes way too close to preaching, lurches away from the control of director Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday) and ends on a stretched-out note so sappy it makes "Must Love Dogs" look like "8 Mile." Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
Garnering a chuckle or two, but no more, are Donal Logue from "The Tao of Steve" (now there's a comedy) -- and, as a desperate magnet for both the slacker and "dude" demographics, Jon Heder from Napoleon Dynamite. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Sadly, most of the fun and all the magic derive from the location. The most enthralling fantasy of Just Like Heaven is that an unemployed landscape architect and a fledgling doctor can afford a sprawling apartment with a rooftop view in San Francisco. Read full review
63
PremierePeter Debruge
Belongs to the same class of cotton-candy romances as "Chances Are" and "Somewhere in Time," although it steers its light-hearted subject into darker territory with the life support subplot. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
As uneven as the topography of its San Francisco locales, but the amiable peaks mostly offset the flat stretches and valleys. A variation on a very old meet-cute theme with a touch of otherworldly romance. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
It's not heaven, exactly, but after the purgatory of the late summer movie season, it may be close enough. Read full review
60
EmpireJo Berry
A sweet but predictable chick flick, this coasts by on the considerable charm of its two leads. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
A forgettable, patched-together clone of other ghostly romances. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Part of the problem is Mark Ruffalo, whose tortured sensitivity in "You Can Count On Me" and "We Don't Live Here Anymore" made him seem like Marlon Brando's heir apparent, not Will Smith's. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Unfortunately, the movie fails to fully make sense, which may be because it's based on a French novel (If Only It Were True by Marc Levy). Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
There are moments when it is possible, with effort, to forget the plot and its tired premise and enjoy Witherspoon and Ruffalo's chemistry and imagine they are in another movie. But never for long. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
The last half is so superior to the first that you wish they'd rethought the whole thing and devised a way to make it more of a one piece. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
The leads are just too good to commit fully to something this baldly formulaic. It's sad. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
As a movie genre, the ghostly romantic comedy dates back at least as far as "Topper" (1937), and the stale premise, combined with the leads' typecasting, makes for an eminently forgettable date movie. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
The usually zippy and subversive director Mark Waters (Freaky Friday, Mean Girls) plays things straight and suffocatingly sentimental - which actually makes the whole movie seem that much creepier. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJoshua Land
Witherspoon's oft charming perkiness is merely patronizing here, but mid-'90s MTV staple Donal Logue steals every scene he's in as an ethically challenged therapist. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The movie starts cheating the audience early, and never lets up. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
A huge waste of talent (Witherspoon's) and time (ours), a supernatural romantic comedy that is neither romantic, comedic, super or natural. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A groaningly awful romantic comedy. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The problem comes when the movie turns into a tedious, faith-based diatribe against medical science. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Just Like Heaven suggests that a post-coma Elizabeth might understand what life is truly all about. Of course, if being alive means having to live in this movie, maybe she was better off the way she was. Read full review
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Outlandish, uneven, preposterous and often maddeningly morbid. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
It's desperately lifeless. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
You won’t want to sit through. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Sounds promising. What a disappointment then to report that Just Like Heaven is more like purgatory, a sweating, straining attempt to marry the wisecracking fury of the modern sitcom to the classic Rock-Doris, Cary-Kate romantic comedy. Read full review
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