Over Her Dead Body: Lively Comedy, Dead Romance

Watching Over Her Dead Body alone made me happy I didn't bring a date. The movie is funny, but is stuck in flirt-mode without a character I would see appealing to date. The movie is of friends who do unfriendly things to each other to fall in love, while all they ever did was flirt.

Paul Rudd (Knocked Up) plays Henry, a man on the rebound a year after his fiance Kate (Eva Longaria Parker) was killed on their wedding day by an ice scuplture of an angel landing on her. His sister sends him to a Ashley, a psychic (Lake Bell) who tries her best despite Henry's skepticism. The sister then hands the psychic Kate's diary and asks her to read it in hopes the psychic will fake making a connection to the late Kate. Ashley fakes is and starts dating Henry, telling him Kate wants them to be together. Of course, who does Kate come back to haunt? The new girl.

The first of a long list of issues with this movie is it isn't serious towards itself. The jokes off to the side are funnier than the predictable plot. How is it Henry doesn't know his dead fiance didn't have a diary, and why did the sister keep it from him this long? In addition, what psychic fakes her own abilities. Kate is a ***** who I don't see as wife potential. Once she dies, she screams at an angel over whether or not they're suppose to have wings. Ashley is a lying *****. The sister is unsympathic in forcing Henry to get over the woman he almost married. In addition is Jason Biggs' character as the roommate, who appears to be the only good person, but then he's also just another layer of characters hurting each other. Without joking, there's a series of scenes near the end where each of the characters alternate who is apologizing to whom.

Back to the movie itself, it isn't serious. For people claiming to fall in love, they only appear to fall in "like," where they date but no deep connection is felt other than connecting with the dead. The ghost idea provides great jokes, but takes away from the romance aspect of the movie, as Kate is more of a running gag than a true mover in the plot. At one point, Ashley calls in a Priest to do an exorcist on the ghost, in exchange for Ashley to attend mass more often. At the point the priest is a joke, his willingness to perform an exorcist for a parishner is all too easy and only makes the movie less realistic, and therefore less appealing as a love story.

The gags go the whole nine yards with a personal touch. Revenge is served cold, taken harshly, and delivered humorously. The sidesteps to the other friends of the characters provide a change to keep the single "ghost jokes" from growing old. For as much as we don't care what happens to the characters (they are rather hateful), we love seeing them hurt each other so humorously. One such scene is when Henry and Ashley are in the bedroom, Ashley trying to block out Kate ruining the moment. Sex with the ex watching? That's funny.

Entertaining? Very. Surprisingly so.

For everyone? Not so much. It's comedy, but it misses the romantic part by making it more about women fighting over a guy than about actually about finding someone and moving on.

Memorable? No. The ghost idea, the exorcism, the lying to get to know someone, the best friend having feelings for the girl, and general break-up until everyone apologizes is very overused. It is that they've made as much as they did out of the old ideas that impressed me.

My suggestion? If you're looking for a cute comedy, this is it. A date movie? Go rent something you know is a good love story.