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The Red & Black | Monday, September 19, 2005 | 9
Ethereal and formulaic
tale still lull of charm
By SEJAL BHIMA
sbhima@randb.com
“Just Like Heaven” has all
the makings of a typical
romantic comedy. Yet with
its fresh take, it’s hard to
shrug it off as just another
sappy chick-flick.
In this supernatural love
story, Reese Witherspoon
plays Elizabeth, an ambitious
San Francisco doctor who
comes home to find a
stranger in her apartment.
The stranger, David (Mark
Ruffalo), claims he is the new
occupant.
As the plot thickens, the
audience learns Elizabeth,
whom only David can see, is
stuck somewhere between
life and afterlife. The two
eventually fall for each other
while searching for
Elizabeth’s lost identity.
Witherspoon and Ruffalo’s
onscreen chemistry is hard to
resist. They make a charm
ing, believable match in the
movie.
‘JUST LIKE HEAVEN’
Grade: A
Verdict: The right mix of comedic
and emotional moments will keep
viewers enthralled.
The strong leads are sup
ported by an equally good
cast.
The most recognizable is
Jon Heder, of “Napoleon
Dynamite” fame, as the
quirky clerk at an occult
bookshop.
Although legions of fans
may be disappointed Heder
wasn’t given more lines,
director Mark Waters uses
him in small but appropriate
doses.
Heder’s character too
closely resembles Napoleon
Dynamite, adding to the
comedy. Yet, any more of his
Napoleon-like antics would
have been overkill.
But Waters did an excel
lent job directing the film. He
never lets either the emotion
or the comedy get out of
control.
A late-breaking twist
could have gone horribly
wrong without the right
direction, but Waters got
exactly the right amount of
humor out of it and then
stopped.
Another plus for the movie
is its witty dialogue.
When Elizabeth shows up
at her little niece’s tea party
and learns her niece can also
see her, she says, “My fate is
in the hands of a 4-year-old
who has seven other imagi
nary friends.”
However, the movie fol
lows the outline of a typical
romantic comedy with its
plot structure.
Guy meets girl, guy and
girl hate each other, but in
the end they fall in love.
Despite its predictability,
with its likeable cast and
good dialogue, “Just Like
Heaven” transcends the aver
age date-night movie.
Discworld novel another hit
By STEPHEN MILLIGAN
smilligan@randb.com
For eons, the great turtle
A’Tuin has swam through the
reaches of space, carrying
four giant elephants on his
massive shell.
On the back of these ele
phants rests a flat disc of
earth, on which live humans,
dwarves, trolls and other
species from the multiverse.
Welcome to Discworld.
Author Terry Pratchett
has written about the comic
adventures of the Discworld
for years, beginning with a
Monty Python- esque parody
of the typical sword and sor
cery fantasy world.
With “Thud!,” the 30th
installment in the series,
Pratchett has once again cre
ated a triumph.
Pratchett succeeds in cre
ating a book that even new
readers can instantly jump
into, summing up hundreds
of pages of back story into
one paragraph.
As the novel progresses, it
mocks government and reli-
‘THUD!’
By Terry Pratchett
Grade: A+
Verdict: It’s funny, it’s deep and
one of the best books of the year.
gion, tackles racial hatred
between enemies and
squeezes in a parody of ele
ments of “The Da Vinci
Code,” all contained within a
hard-boiled detective story of
lies and murder.
For many, the biggest hur
dle in “Thud!” will not be a
late entry into the series, but
the fantasy elements that
fuel the concepts of
Discworld.
Pratchett’s world, howev
er, resonates with the reader
due to its extreme similari
ties to ours. The presence of
a vampire doesn’t make a
shopkeeper on Treacle Street
act any differently than a
Wall Street broker would if
confronted with gothic kids.
Unlike many of the comic
writers of the past decades,
Pratchett creates most of his
humor not out of random
gags and conceptual ideas,
like the late Douglas Adams
and his science fiction
sendup “The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy,” but
out of the characters who
populate this world.
While Pratchett cannot
resist the urge to create fan
tasy versions of pop culture
phenomena occasionally,
such as the pocket
Disorganizer — a Palm Pilot
like device operated by a
miniature imp — most of his
humor relies on the charac
terization of ordinary people,
even the ones with rock for
skin.
“Thud!” should be
required reading for anyone
looking for a side-splitting
comedy, a sharp social satire,
a mystery story or just
another fantasy epic.
The true skill in
Pratchett’s work is the com
plexity of each Discworld
book, and “Thud!” is no dif
ferent, representing what
may be the British writer’s
best, most deeply layered
book yet.
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